LI  B  R.AR.Y 

OF  THE 

U  N  IVERSITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 

PRESENTED  BY 
George  R.  Carr 
Class  of  1901 
1951 


co 


HARPER'S 

CHICAGO 


AND 


THE  WORLD'S  FAIR 


THE  CHAPTERS  ON  THE  EXPOSITION 

BEING  COLLATED  FROM  OFFICIAL 

SOURCES  AND  APPROVED  BY 

THE  DEPAR  TMENT  OF  PUBLICITY 

AND  PROMOTION  OF  THE 

WORLD'S  'COLUMBIAN 

EXPOSITION 


BY  JULIAN  RALPH 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW    YORK 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1893 


Copyright,  1892,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS. 

All  rights  reserved. 


PREFACE 


AT  the  suggestion  of  Messrs.  Harper  &  Brothers  the 
author  of  this  work  visited  Chicago  in  the  summer  of 
1891  and  studied  the  plans  and  aims  of  those  who  were 
in  charge  of  the  World's  Columbian  Exposition.  He  be- 
came convinced  that  the  Fair  was  almost  certain  to  be  of 
unparalleled  magnificence  and  interest  and  more  nearly 
universal  in  character  than  any  that  has  ever  been  held. 
He  was  permitted  to  make  public  this  impression  in  an 
article  in  HARPER'S  MAGAZINE  which  had  the  merit  of  ap- 
pearing when  such  an  announcement  —  especially  in  a 
New  York  publication — was  singularly  timely.  A  large 
portion  of  the  public,  to  some  extent  shocked  by  the  fail- 
ure of  the  Government  to  order  the  Fair  held  in  New  York, 
had  been  inclined  to  disparage  the  undertaking. 
Even  before  that,  the  pages  of  HARPER'S  WEEKLY  had 

4       begun  to  build  up  that  pictorial  and  literary  record  of  the 
work  which  will  finally  form  a  brilliant  history  of  the  en- 
terprise, and  which  has  been   accompanied  by  frequent 
'  i)       articles  in  the  BAZAR  and  YOUNG  PEOPLE.     In  asserting  that 

XfCxthe  Harpers  have  thus  taken  the  lead — and  held  it — in  ex- 
ploiting the  Exposition,  the  intention  is  not  to  boast  of 

*2  their  enterprise,  but  to  explain  that  the  present  work  is 
only  a  further  expression  of  the  patriotic  impulse  that  led 
them  thus  early  to  support  our  nation's  gigantic  effort  to 
entertain  and  instruct  the  world. 


This  book  does  not  pretend  to  be  a  guide,  either  to  the 
great  and  interesting  City  of  Chicago  or  to  the  Exposition 
which  is  to  be  held  in  one  of  its  parks.  Such  a  guide 
would  be  five  times  the  size  of  this  work,  and  little  more 
companionable  than  a  dictionary;  indeed,  it  would  be  im- 
possible at  this  time  to  compile  such  a  work  as  would  an- 
ticipate the  wonders  of  the  Fair  in  detail.  This  is  rather  a 
series  of  descriptions  of  the  peculiarities  and  attractions  of 
Chicago  and  of  the  most  novel  and  inviting  of  those  feat- 
ures of  the  Exposition  in  regard  to  which  it  has  been  pos- 
sible to  gain  reliable  information  at  this  time — October, 
1892.  It  is  a  book  to  be  read  at  home  and  before  the 
Exposition  opens,  rather  than  afterwards  and  upon  the 
Fair  Grounds. 

What  is  written  of  Chicago  has  already  appeared  in  the 
Harper  periodicals.  It  should  be  of  value  if  the  author 
has  improved  his  exceptional  opportunities  for  studying 
the  town.  On  the  other  hand,  the  chapters  upon  the  Ex- 
position were  but  little  dependent  on  his  ability,  for  each 
was  written  close  upon  a  talk  with  some  Exposition  offi- 
cial who  was  enthusiastic  over  his  work  and  whose  state- 
ments were  taken  down  while  he  talked  and  merely  re- 
clothed,  in  part,  in  the  writer's  own  language,  afterwards. 

NEW  YORK,  October  i,  1892. 

vi 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE     , V 

CHICAGO 

CHAPTER 

I.   THE  MAIN   EXHIBIT I 

II.    HOW    CHICAGO   WAS    BORN 32 

III.    THE  WAY   IT   IS   GOVERNED 39 

IV.    CUPID'S   WINDOW   IN   THE   CITY 53 

V.   THE  MAN   AT   THE  CRIB 63 

VI.  CHICAGO'S  ARGONAUTS 69 

VII.    KILLING  CATTLE   FOR   TWO   CONTINENTS 75 

VIII.  'ROUND  ABOUT  THE  TOWN 82 

IX.    CHICAGO   AND   HER   RAILROAD   WEB gi 

THE  WORLD'S   FAIR 

X.    OUR   COLUMBIAN   EXPOSITION 103 

XI.    EXPLOITING   THE    FAIR 127 

XII.    BUILDING  OUR  GREAT   FAIR .  134 

XIII.    A   REALIZED   DREAM — THE  GRAND   COURT 148 

XIV.  WOMAN'S  TRIUMPH  AT  THE  FAIR 161 

%  XV.    THE   HISTORY   OF   MAN   AND   THE  COLUMBUS   EXHIBIT     .      .  171 

XVI.    FOREIGN   NATIONS   AT   OUR   FAIR 179 

XVII.    THE  GALLERY   OF   FINE  ARTS 1 88 

XVIII.    NINE  ACRES   OF   ELECTRICAL  EXHIBITS 194 

XIX.    A   HISTORY   OF  TRANSPORTATION 198 

XX.    THE  MIDWAY   PLAISANCE 2O6 

XXI.    ORNAMENTS   AND   ODDITIES 213 

XXII.    A  WONDERFUL  MINERAL   EXHIBIT 221 

XXIII.  THE   FISHERIES   DISPLAY 230 

XXIV.  CONCLUSION 234 

vii 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Grand  Court Frontispiece 

Government  Building Faces  page       4 

"War" '  .     .  "  "        8 

The  Golden  Doorway — Main  Entrance  to  Transportation 

Building "  "      12 

Workers  in  Staff "  "      16 

The  Algerian  Village,  Midway  Plaisance "  "20 

Ohio  Building "  "24 

Interior  of  Manufactures  Building,  Showing  Base  of  One 

of  the  Great  Arches "  "28 

Figure  of  "  Fire  "  for  Machinery  Hall "  "32 

Placing  Exterior  Decorations  on  the  Horticultural  Build- 
ing       "  "36 

Model  for  the  Live-stock  Entrance "  "40 

The  British  Building "  "46 

Model  for  Live-stock  Entrance "  "50 

Making  one  of  the  Big  Figures  foj  Electricity  Building       .  "  "      54 
Constructing    Manufactures    and    Liberal    Arts   Building. 

View  from  Lake  Front "  "56 

A  Sculptor's  Studio "  "60 

The  Building  from  Wooded  Island "  "64 

Wisconsin  State  Building — North  Dakota  State  Building    .  "  "66 
Fisheries  Building  —  Government  Building — Liberal  Arts 

Building "  "70 

The  Model  Man-of-war  (The  Government  Exhibit  at  the 

Columbian  Exposition) "  "72 

Georgia  Building — The  Massachusetts  State  Building  .     .  "  "      76 

The  Convent  of  La  Rabida,  Spain "  "78 

Pediment,  Agricultural  Building — Forestry  Building      .     .  "  "80 

Horticultural  Building "  "82 


Liberal  Arts  Building  —  Electricity  Building  —  Mines  and 

Mining  Building Faces  page 

"Commerce" "  " 

Charles  B.  Atwood,  Designer-in-chief  —  G.  W.   Allen,  of 

New  York,  Vice-president "  "88 

Labna — Portal  from  Court "  "92 

The  Franklin  Statue  for  the  Roof  of  the  Electrical  Building  "  "     94 

Administration  Building "  "96 

Liberal  Arts  Building,' — Electricity  Building  —  Mines  and 

Mining  Building "  "98 

Mrs.  Potter  Palmer,  President  of  the  Board  of  Lady  Man- 
agers of  the  Columbian  Exposition "  "    104 

New  York  Building "  "    106 

Fisheries  Building "  "no 

View  Looking  through  the  Lagoon "  "112 

Thomas  M.  Waller,  of  Connecticut,  Vice-president — D.  B. 

Penn,  of  Louisiana,  Vice-president "  "114 

Woman's  Building "    116 

Agricultural  Building "  "120 

"Fine  Arts" "  "    124 

MacMonnies  Fountain "  "    128 

The  Statue  of  the  Republic "  "132 

A.  B.  Andrews,  of  North  Carolina,  Vice-president — H.  M. 

De  Young,  of  California,  Vice-president "  "    136 

Manufacturers  and  Liberal  Arts  Building "  "    140 

Queen  Isabella  Pavilion "  "    142 

The  German  Government  Building "  "   144 

D.  H.  Burnham,  Chief  of  Construction "  "    148 

Architectural  Bits  at  the  World's  Fair "  "    152 

The  Administration  Building "  "154 

The  Government  Building "  "158 

The  Mining  Building '    162 

The  Electrical  Building "  "    166 

Wyoming  State  Building — General  View  of  the  Fair      .     .  "  "    168 

Transportation  Building "  "172 

Mrs.    Frances   Welles   Shepard — Mrs.    Mary    Kavanaugh 

Eagle "  "176 

View  from  Art  Gallery '    180 

Washington  State  Building "  "184 

California  State  Building '    186 

The  Administration  Building "  "    190 


Anthony  F.  Seeberger — Hon.  Benjamin  Butterworth     .     .  Faces  page  ig6 

Minnesota  Building "  "    200 

Mrs.  Rosine  Ryan — Miss  Mary  E.  McCandless   ....  "  "    202 

Colorado  State  Building "  "   204 

Moses  P.  Handy — Charles  L.  Hutchinson "  "   208 

The  Aquarium  and  North  Entrance  to  the  Fisheries  Build- 
ing, Showing  Detail  of  Capitals  and  Columns  .     ...  "  "    210 
Mrs.  Charles  Henrotin — Mrs.  Susan  Riley  Ashley     ...  "  "   214 

Maine  State  Building "  "    192 

Col.  G.  R.  Davis "  "    218 

Thomas  W.  Palmer "  "    222 

John  T.  Dickinson,  of  Texas,  Secretary "  "    226 

Pennsylvania  Building "  "    234 

The  Machinery  Building "  "   238 

Halsey  C.  Ives— W.  T.  Baker "  "242 


CHICAGO 


CHICAGO 


CHAPTER   I 
THE   MAIN   EXHIBIT 

CHICAGO  will  be  the  main  exhibit  at  the  Columbian 
Exposition  of  1893.  No  matter  what  the  aggregation 
of  wonders  there,  no  matter  what  the  Eiffel-Tower-like 
chief  exhibit  may  be,  the  city  itself  will  make  the  most 
surprising  presentation.  Those  who  go  to  study  the 
world's  progress  will  find  no  other  result  of  human  force 
so  wonderful,  extravagant,  or  peculiar.  Those  who  carry 
with  them  the  prejudices  begotten  of  political  rivalry  or 
commercial  envy  will  discover  that,  however  well-found- 
ed some  of  the  criticism  has  been — especially  as  to  the 
spirit  of  the  Chicagoans — the  development  of  the  place 
has  not  followed  the  logical  deductions.  Those  who  go 
clear-minded,  expecting  to  see  a  great  city,  will  find  one 
different  from  that  which  any  precedent  has  led  them 
to  look  for. 

While  investigating  the  management  and  prospects 
of  the  Columbian  Exposition,  I  was  a  resident  of  Chi- 


cago  for  more  than  a  fortnight.  A  born  New-Yorker, 
the  energy,  roar,  and  bustle  of  the  place  were  yet  suffi- 
cient to  first  astonish  and  then  to  fatigue  me.  I  was 
led  to  examine  the  city,  and  to  cross-examine  some  of 
its  leading  men.  I  came  away  compelled  to  acknowl- 
edge its  possession  of  certain  forceful  qualities  which  I 
never  saw  exhibited  in  the  same  degree  anywhere  else. 
I  got  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  its  growth  and  achieve- 
ments, as  well  as  proof  that  it  must  continue  to  expand 
in  population  and  commercial  influence.  Moreover, 
without  losing  a  particle  of  pride  or  faith  in  New  York 
— without  perceiving  that  New  York  was  affected  by 
the  consideration — I  acquired  a  respect  for  Chicago  such 
as  it  is  most  likely  that  any  American  who  makes  a  sim- 
ilar investigation  must  share  with  me. 

The  city  has  been  thought  intolerant  of  criticism. 
The  amount  of  truth  there  is  in  this  is  found  in  its  su- 
pervoluminous  civicism.  The  bravado  and  bunkum  of 
the  Chicago  newspapers  reflect  this  quality  but  do  it 
clumsily,  because  it  proceeds  from  a  sense  of  business 
policy  with  the  editors,  who  laugh  at  it  themselves.  But 
underlying  the  behavior  of  the  most  able  and  enterpris- 
ing men  in  the  city  is  this  motto,  which  they  constantly 
quoted  to  me,  all  using  the  same  words,  "  We  are  for 
Chicago  first,  last,  and  all  the  time."  To  define  that 
sentence  is,  in  a  great  measure,  to  account  for  Chicago. 
It  explains  the  possession  of  a  million  inhabitants  by  a 
city  that  practically  dates  its  beginning  after  the  war  of 
the  rebellion.  Its  adoption  by  half  a  million  men  as 
their  watchword  means  the  forcing  of  trade  and  manu- 
factures and  wealth ;  the  getting  of  the  World's  Fair,  if 
you  please.  In  order  to  comprehend  Chicago,  it  is  best 
never  to  lose  sight  of  the  motto  of  its  citizens. 


I  have  spoken  of  the  roar  and  bustle  and  energy  of 
Chicago.  This  is  most  noticeable  in  the  business  part 
of  the  town,  where  the  greater  number  of  the  men  are 
crowded  together.  It  seems  there  as  if  the  men  would 
run  over  the  horses  if  the  drivers  were  not  careful. 
Everybody  is  in  such  a  hurry  and  going  at  such  a  pace 
that  if  a  stranger  asks  his  way,  he  is  apt  to  have  to  trot 
•*  along  with  his  neighbor  to  gain  the  information,  for  the 
average  Chicagoan  cannot  stop  to  talk.  The  whole 
business  of  life  is  carried  on  at  high  pressure,  and  the 
pithy  part  of  Chicago  is  like  three  hundred  acres  of 
New  York  Stock  Exchange  when  trading  is  active. 
European  visitors  have  written  that  there  are  no  such 
crowds  anywhere  as  gather  on  Broadway,  and  this  is 
true  most  of  the  time ;  but  there  is  one  hour  on  every 
week-day  when  certain  streets  in  Chicago  are  so  packed 
with  people  as  to  make  Broadway  look  desolate  and 
solitudinous  by  comparison.  That  is  the  hour  between 
half-past  five  and  half-past  six  o'clock,  when  the  famous 
tall  buildings  of  the  city  vomit  their  inhabitants  upon 
the  pavements.  Photographs  of  the  principal  corners 
and  crossings,  taken  at  the  height  of  the  human  torrent, 
suggest  the  thought  that  the  camera  must  have  been 
turned  on  some  little-known  painting  by  Dore.  Nobody 
but  Dore  ever  conceived  such  pictures.  To  those  who 
are  in  the  crowds,  even  Chicago  seems  small  and  cramp- 
ed ;  even  her  street -cars,  running  in  breakneck  trains, 
prove  far  too  few  ;  even  her  streets  that  connect  horizon 
with  horizon  seem  each  night  to  roar  at  the  city  officials 
for  further  annexation  in  the  morning. 

We  shall  see  these  crowds  simply  and  satisfactorily 
accounted  for  presently ;  but  they  exhibit  only  one 
phase  of  the  high -pressure  existence;  they  form  only 

3 


one  feature  among  the  many  that  distinguish  the  town. 
In  the  tall  buildings  are  the  most  modern  and  rapid 
elevators,  machines  that  fly  up  through  the  towers  like 
glass  balls  from  a  trap  at  a  shooting  contest.  The  slow- 
going  stranger,  who  is  conscious  of  having  been  "  knead- 
ed "  along  the  streets,  like  a  lump  of  dough  among  a 
million  bakers,  feels  himself  loaded  into  one  of  those 
frail-looking  baskets  of  steel  netting,  and  the  next  in- 
stant the  elevator-boy  touches  the  trigger,  and  up  goes 
the  whole  load  as  a  feather  is  caught  up  by  a  gale.  The 
descent  is  more  simple.  Something  lets  go,  and  you 
fall  from  ten  to  twenty  stories  as  it  happens.  There  is 
sometimes  a  jolt,  which  makes  the  passenger  seem  to 
feel  his  stomach  pass  into  his  shoes,  but,  as  a  rule,  the 
mechanism  and  management  both  work  marvellously 
towards  ease  and  gentleness.  These  elevators  are  too 
slow  for  Chicago,  and  the  managers  of  certain  tall  build- 
ings now  arrange  them  so  that  some  run  "  express  "  to 
the  seventh  story  without  stopping,  while  what  may  be 
called  accommodation  cars  halt  at  the  lower  floors,  pur- 
suing a  course  that  may  be  likened  to  the  emptying  of 
the  chambers  of  a  revolver  in  the  hands  of  a  person  who 
is  "  quick  on  the  trigger."  It  is  the  same  everywhere 
in  the  business  district.  Along  Clark  Street  are  some 
gorgeous  underground  restaurants,  all  marble  and  plated 
metal.  Whoever  is  eating  at  one  of  the  tables  in  them 
will  see  the  ushers  standing  about  like  statues  until  a 
customer  enters  the  door,  when  they  dart  forward  as  if 
the  building  were  falling.  It  is  only  done  in  order  to 
seat  the  visitor  promptly.  Being  of  a  sympathetic  and 
impressionable  nature,  I  bolted  along  the  streets  all  the 
time  I  was  there  as  if  some  one  on  the  next  block  had 
picked  my  pocket. 


In  the  Auditorium  Hotel  the  guests  communicate 
with  the  clerk  by  electricity,  and  may  flash  word  of 
their  thirst  to  the  bar-tender  as  lightning  dances  from 
the  top  to  the  bottom  of  a  steeple.  A  sort  of  annun- 
ciator is  used,  and  by  turning  an  arrow  and  pressing  a 
button,  a  man  may  in  half  a  minute  order  a  cocktail, 
towels,  ice-water,  stationery,  dinner,  a  bootblack,  and  the 
evening  newspapers.  Our  horse-cars  in  New  York  move 
at  the  rate  of  about  six  miles  an  hour.  The  cable-cars 
of  Chicago  make  more  than  nine  miles  an  hour  in  town, 
and  more  than  thirteen  miles  an  hour  where  the  popu- 
lation is  less  dense.  They  go  in  trains  of  from  two  to 
four  cars  each,  and  with  such  a  racket  of  gong-ringing 
and  such  a  grinding  and  whir  of  grip-wheels  as  to  make 
a  modern  vestibuled  train  seem  to  slight  its  opportuni- 
ties for  noise.  But  these  street-cars  distribute  the  peo- 
ple grandly,  and  while  they  occasionally  run  over  a  stray 
citizen,  they  far  more  frequently  clear  their  way  by  lift- 
ing wagons  and  trucks  bodily  to  one  side  as  they  whirl 
along.  It  is  a  rapid  and  a  business-like  city.  The  speed 
with  which  cattle  are  killed  and  pigs  are  turned  into 
slabs  of  salt  pork  has  amazed  the  world,  but  it  is  only 
the  ignorant  portion  thereof  that  does  not  know  that 
the  celerity  at  the  stock-yards  is  merely  an  effort  of 
the  butchers  to  keep  up  with  the  rest  of  the  town. 
The  only  slow  things  in  Chicago  are  the  steam  railway 
trains.  Further  on  we  will  discover  why  they  are  so. 

I  do  not  know  how  many  very  tall  buildings  Chicago 
contains,  but  they  must  number  nearly  two  dozen. 
Some  of  them  are  artistically  designed,  and  hide  their 
height  in  well-balanced  proportions.  A  few  are  mere 
boxes  punctured  with  window -holes,  and  stand  above 
their  neighbors  like  great  hitching -posts.  The  best 

5 


of  them  are  very  elegantly  and  completely  appoint- 
ed, and  the  communities  of  men  inside  them  might  al- 
most live  their  lives  within  their  walls,  so  multifarious 
are  the  occupations  and  services  of  the  tenants.  The 
best  New  York  office  buildings  are  not  injured  by  com- 
parison with  these  towering  structures,  except  that  they 
are  not  so  tall  as  the  Chicago  buildings,  but  there  is  not 
in  New  York  any  office  structure  that  can  be  compared 
with  Chicago's  so-called  Chamber  of  Commerce  office 
building,  so  far  as  are  concerned  the  advantages  of  light 
and  air  and  openness  and  roominess  which  its  tenants 
enjoy.  In  these  respects  there  is  only  one  finer  build- 
ing in  America,  and  that  is  in  Minneapolis.  It  is  a 
great  mistake  to  think  that  we  in  New  York  possess  all 
the  elegant,  rich,  and  ornamental  outgrowths  of  taste,  or 
that  we  know  better  than  the  West  what  are  the  luxu- 
ries and  comforts  of  the  age.  With  their  floors  of  deftly 
laid  mosaic-work,  their  walls  of  marble  and  onyx,  their 
balustrades  of  copper  worked  into  arabesquerie,  their 
artistic  lanterns,  elegant  electric  fixtures,  their  costly 
and  luxurious  public  rooms,  these  Chicago  office  build- 
ings force  an  exclamation  of  praise,  however  unwillingly 
it  comes. 

They  have  adopted  what  they  call  "  the  Chicago 
method "  in  putting  up  these  steepling  hives.  This 
plan  is  to  construct  the  actual  edifice  of  steel  frame- 
work, to  which  are  added  thin  outer  walls  of  brick  or 
stone  masonry,  and  the  necessary  partitions  of  fire- 
brick, and  plaster  laid  on  iron  lathing.  The  buildings 
are  therefore  like  enclosed  bird-cages,  and  it  is  said  that, 
like  bird  -  cages,  they  cannot  shake  or  tumble  down. 
The  exterior  walls  are  mere  envelopes.  They  are  so 
treated  that  the  buildings  look  like  heaps  of  masonry, 

6 


but  that  is  homage  paid  to  custom  more  than  it  is  a 
material  element  of  strength.  These  walls  are  to  a 
building  what  an  envelope  is  to  a  letter,  or  a  cover  is  to 
a  book.  The  Chicago  method  is  expeditious,  economi- 
cal, and  in  many  ways  advantageous.  The  manner  in 
which  the  great  weight  of  houses  so  tall  as  to  include 
between  sixteen  and  twenty-four  stories  is  distributed 
upon  the  ground  beneath  them  is  ingenious.  Wherever 
one  of  the  principal  upright  pillars  is  to  be  set  up,  the 
builders  lay  a  pad  of  steel  and  cement  of  such  extent 
that  the  pads  for  all  the  pillars  cover  all  the  site.  These 
pads  are  slightly  pyramidal  in  shape,  and  are  made  by 
laying  alternate  courses  of  steel  beams  crosswise,  one 
upon  another.  Each  pair  of  courses  of  steel  is  filled  in 
and  solidified  with  cement,  and  then  the  next  two 
courses  are  added  and  similarly  treated.  At  last  each 
pad  is  eighteen  inches  thick,  and  perhaps  eighteen  feet 
square ;  but  the  size  is  governed  by  the  desire  to  dis- 
tribute the  weight  of  the  building  at  about  the  average 
of  a  ton  to  the  square  foot. 

This  peculiar  process  is  necessitated  by  the  character 
of  the  land  underneath  Chicago.  Speaking  widely,  the 
rule  is  to  find  from  seven  to  fourteen  feet  of  sand  super- 
imposed upon  a  layer  of  clay  between  ten  and  forty 
feet  in  depth.  It  has  not  paid  to  puncture  this  clay 
with  piling.  The  piles  sink  into  a  soft  and  yielding 
substance,  and  the  clay  is  not  tenacious  enough  to  hold 
them.  Thus  the  Chicago  Post-office  was  built,  and  it 
not  only  settles  continuously,  but  it  settles  unevenly. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  famous  Rookery  Building,  set 
up  on  these  steel  and  cement  pads,  did  not  sink  quite 
an  inch,  though  the  architect's  calculation  was  that,  by 
squeezing  the  water  out  of  the  clay  underneath,  it  would 

7 


settle  seven  inches.  Very  queer  and  differing  results 
have  followed  the  construction  of  Chicago's  biggest 
buildings,  and  without  going  too  deep  into  details,  it  has 
been  noticed  that  while  some  have  pulled  neighboring 
houses  down  a  few  inches,  others  have  lifted  adjoining 
houses,  and  still  others  have  raised  buildings  that  were 
at  a  distance  from  themselves.  The  bed  of  clay  under- 
neath Chicago  acts  when  under  pressure  like  a  pan  of 
dough,  or  like  a  blanket  tautened  at  the  edges  and  held 
clear  of  underneath  support.  Chicago's  great  office 
buildings  have  basements,  but  no  cellars. 

I  have  referred  to  the  number  of  these  stupendous 
structures.  Let  it  be  known  next  that  they  are  all  in  a 
very  small  district,  that  narrow  area  which  composes 
Chicago's  office  region,  which  lies  between  Lake  Michi- 
gan and  all  the  principal  railroad  districts,  and  at  the 
edges  of*  which  one-twenty-fifth  of  all  the  railroad  mile- 
age of  the  world  is  said  to  terminate,  though  the  dis- 
trict is  but  little  more  than  half  a  mile  square  or  300 
acres  in  extent.  One  of  these  buildings — and  not  the 
largest — -has  a  population  of  4000  persons.  It  was  vis- 
ited and  its  elevators  were  used  on  three  days,  when  a 
count  was  kept,  by  19,000,  18,000,  and  20,000  persons. 
Last  October  there  were  7000  offices  in  the  tall  buildings 
of  Chicago,  and  7000  more  were  under  way  in  buildings 
then  undergoing  construction.  The  reader  now  under- 
stands why  in  the  heart  of  Chicago  every  work -day 
evening  the  crowds  convey  the  idea  that  our  Broadway 
is  a  deserted  thoroughfare  as  compared  with,  say,  the 
corner  of  Clark  and  Jackson  streets. 

These  tall  buildings  are  mainly  built  on  land  ob- 
tained on  ninety-nine  year  leasehold.  Long  leases  rath- 
er than  outright  purchases  of  land  have  long  been  a 


' '  WAR  " 


favorite  preliminary  to  building  in  Chicago,  where,  for 
one  thing,  the  men  who  owned  the  land  have  not  been 
those  with  the  money  for  building.  Where  very  great 
and  costly  buildings  are  concerned,  the  long  leases  often 
go  to  corporations  or  syndicates,  who  put  up  the  houses. 
It  seems  to  many  strangers  who  visit  Chicago  that  it  is 
reasonable  to  prophesy  a  speedy  end  to  the  feverish 
impulse  to  swell  the  number  of  these  giant  piles,  either 
through  legislative  ordinance  or  by  the  fever  running  its 
course.  Many  prophesy  that  it  must  soon  end.  This 
idea  is  bred  of  several  reasons.  In  the  first  place,  the 
tall  buildings  darken  the  streets,  and  transform  the 
lower  stories  of  opposite  houses  into  so  many  cellars  or 
damp  and  dark  basements.  In  the  next  place,  the  great 
number  of  tall  and  splendid  office  houses  is  depreciating 
the  value  of  the  humbler  property  in  their  neighbor- 
hoods. Four-story  and  five-story  houses  that  once  were 
attractive  are  no  longer  so,  because  their  owners  cannot 
afford  the  conveniences  which  distinguish  the  greater 
edifices,  wherein  light  and  heat  are  often  provided  free, 
fire-proof  safes  are  at  the  service  of  every  tenant,  janitors 
officer  a  host  of  servants,  and  there  are  barber -shops, 
restaurants,  cigar  and  news  stands,  elevators,  and  a  half- 
dozen  other  conveniences  not  found  in  smaller  houses. 
It  would  seem,  also,  that  since  not  all  the  people  of 
Chicago  spend  their  time  in  offices,  there  must  soon 
come  an  end  of  the  demand  for  these  chambers.  So  it 
seems,  but  not  to  a  thorough-bred  Chicagoan.  One  of 
the  foremost  business  men  in  the  city  asserts  that  he 
can  perceive  no  reason  why  the  entire  business  heart  of 
the  town — that  square  half-mile  of  which  I  have  spoken 
— should  not  soon  be  all  builded  up  of  cloud-capped 
towers.  There  will  be  a  need  for  them,  he  says,  and  the 

9 


money  to  defray  the  cost  of  them  will  accompany  the 
demand.  The  only  trouble  he  foresees  will  be  in  the 
solution  of  the  problem  what  to  do  with  the  people  who 
will  then  crowd  the  streets  as  never  streets  were  clogged 
before. 

This  prophecy  relates  to  a  little  section  of.  the  city,  but 
the  city  itself  contains  i8i|-  square  miles.  It  has  been 
said  of  the  many  annexations  by  which  her  present  size 
was  attained  that  Chicago  reached  out  and  took  to  her- 
self farms,  prairie  land,  and  villages,  and  that  of  such 
material  the  great  city  now  in  part  consists.  This  is 
true.  In  suburban  trips,  such  as  those  I  took  to  Fort 
Sheridan  and  Fernwood,  for  instance,  I  passed  great  cab- 
bage farms,  groves,  houseless  but  plotted  tracts,  and  long 
reaches  of  the  former  prairie.  Even  yet  Hyde  Park  is 
a  separated  settlement,  and  a  dozen  or  more  villages 
stand  out  as  distinctly  by  themselves  as  ever  they  did. 
If  it  were  true,  as  her  rivals  insist,  that  Chicago  added 
all  this  tract  merely  to  get  a  high  rank  in  the  census  re- 
ports of  population,  the  folly  of  the  action  would  be 
either  ludicrous  or  pitiful,  according  to  the  stand-point 
from  which  it  was  viewed.  But  the  true  reason  for  her 
enormous  extension  of  municipal  jurisdiction  is  quite  as 
peculiar.  The  enlargement  was  urged  and  accomplished 
in  order  to  anticipate  the  growth  and  needs  of  the  city. 
It  was  a  consequence  of  extraordinary  foresight,  which 
recognized  the  necessity  for  a  uniform  system  of  boule- 
vards, parks,  drainage,  and  water  provision  when  the  city 
should  reach  limits  that  it  was  even  then  seen  must 
soon  bound  a  compact  aggregation  of  stores,  offices,  fac- 
tories, and  dwellings.  To  us  of  the  East  this  is  surpris- 
ing. It  might  seem  incredible  were  there  not  many 
other  evidences  of  the  same  spirit  and  sagacity  not  only 


in  Chicago,  but  in  the  other  cities  of  the  West,  especial- 
ly of  the  North-west.  What  Minneapolis,  St.  Paul,  and 
Duluth  are  doing  towards  a  future  park  system  reveals 
the  same  enterprise  and  habit  of  looking  far  ahead. 
And  Chicago,  in  her  park  system,  makes  evident  her  in- 
tentions. In- all  these  cities  and  in  a  hundred  ways  the 
observant  traveller  notes  the  same  forehandedness,  and 
prepares  himself  to  understand  the  temper  in  which  the 
greatest  of  the  Western  capitals  leaned  forth  and  ab- 
sorbed the  prairie.  Chicago  expects  to  become  the 
largest  city  in  America  —  a  city  which,  in  fifty  years, 
shall  be  larger  than  the  consolidated  cities  that  may 
form  New  York  at  that  time. 

Now  on  what  substance  does  Chicago  feed  that  she 
should  foresee  herself  so  great  ?  What  manner  of  men 
are  those  of  Chicago?  What  are  the  whys  and  the 
wherefores  of  her  growth  ? 

It  seems  to  have  ever  been,  as  it  is  now,  a  city  of 
young  men.  One  Chicagoan  accounts  for  its  low  death- 
rate  on  the  ground  that  not  even  its  leading  men  are 
yet  old  enough  to  die.  The  young  men  who  drifted 
there  from  the  Eastern  States  after  the  close  of  the  war 
all  agree  that  the  thing  which  most  astonished  them 
was  the  youthfulness  of  the  most  active  business  men. 
Marshall  Field,  Potter  Palmer,  and  the  rest,  heading 
very  large  mercantile  establishments,  were  young  fellows. 
Those  who  came  to  Chicago  from  England  fancied,  as 
it  is  said  that  Englishmen  do,  that  a  man  may  not  be 
trusted  with  affairs  until  he  has  lost  half  his  hair  and 
all  his  teeth.  Our  own  Eastern  men  were  apt  to  place 
wealth  and  success  at  the  middle  of  the  scale  of  life. 
But,  in  Chicago,  men  under  thirty  were  leading  in  com- 
merce and  industry.  The  sight  was  a  spur  to  all  the 


young  men  who  came,  and  they  also  pitched  in  to  swell 
the  size  and  successes  of  the  young  men's  capital.  The 
easy  making  of  money  by  the  loaning  of  it  and  by  hand- 
ling city  realty — sources  which  never  failed  with  shrewd 
men — not  only  whetted  the  general  appetite  for  big  and 
quick  money-making,  but  they  provided  the  means  for 
the  establishment  and  extension  of  trade  in  other  ways 
and  with  the  West  at  large. 

It  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  Chicago  that  one  finds 
not  only  the  capitalists  but  the  store-keepers  discussing 
the  whole  country  with  a  familiarity  as  strange  to  a 
man  from  the  Atlantic  coast  as  Nebraska  is  strange  to 
most  Philadelphians  or  New-Yorkers.  But  the  well- 
informed  and  "hustling"  Chicagoan  is  familiar  with  the 
differing  districts  of  the  entire  West,  North,  and  South, 
with  their  crops,  industries,  wants,  financial  status,  and 
means  of  intercommunication.  As  in  London  we  find 
men  whose  business  field  is  the  world,  so  in  Chicago  we 
find  the  business  men  talking  not  of  one  section  or  of 
Europe,  as  is  largely  the  case  in  New  York,  but  dis- 
cussing the  affairs  of  the  entire  country.  The  figures 
which  garnish  their  conversation  are  bewildering,  but  if 
they  are  analyzed,  or  even  comprehended,  they  will  re- 
veal to  the  listener  how  vast  and  how  wealthy  a  region 
acknowledges  Chicago  as  its  market  and  its  financial 
and  trading  centre. 

Without  either  accepting  or  contesting  any  part  of  the 
process  by  which  Chicago  men  account  for  their  city's 
importance  or  calculate  its  future,  let  me  repeat  a  di- 
gest of  what  several  influential  men  of  that  city  said 
upon  the  subject.  Chicago,  then,  is  the  centre  of  a  cir- 
cle of  1000  miles  diameter.  If  you  draw  a  line  north- 
ward 500  miles,  you  find  everywhere  arable  land  and 

12 


timber.  The  same  is  true  with  respect  to  a  line  drawn 
500  miles  in  a  north-westerly  course.  For  650  miles 
westward  there  is  no  change  in  the  rich  and  alluring 
prospect,  and  so  all  around  the  circle,  except  where 
Lake  Michigan  interrupts  it,  the  same  conditions  are 
found.  Moreover,  the  lake  itself  is  a  valuable  element 
in  commerce.  The  rays  or  spokes  in  all  these  direc- 
tions become  materialized  in  the  form  of  the  tracks  of  35 
railways  which  enter  the  city.  Twenty-two  of  these  are 
great  companies,  and  at  a  short  distance  sub  -  radials 
made  by  other  railroads  raise  the  number  to  50  roads. 
As  I  have  already  said,  in  Chicago  one-twenty-fifth  of 
the  railway  mileage  of  the  world  terminates,  and  serves 
30,000,000  persons,  who  find  Chicago  the  largest  city 
easily  accessible  to  them.  Thus  is  found  a  vast  popu- 
lation connected  easily  and  directly  with  a  common  cen- 
tre, to  which  everything  they  produce  can  be  brought, 
and  from  which  all  that  contributes  to  the  material  prog- 
ress and  comfort  of  man  may  be  economically  distrib- 
uted. 

A  financier  who  is  equally  well  known  and  respected 
in  New  York  and  Chicago  put  the  case  somewhat  dif- 
ferently as  to  what  he  called  Chicago's  territory.  He 
considered  it  as  being  1000  miles  square,  and  spoke  of 
it  as  "  the  land  west  of  the  Alleghanies  and  south  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line."  This  region,  the  richest  agri- 
cultural territory  in  the  world,  does  its  financiering  in 
Chicago.  The  rapid  increase  in  wealth  of  both  the  city 
and  the  tributary  region  is  due  to  the  fact  that  every 
year  both  produce  more,  and  have  more  to  sell  and  less 
to  buy.  Not  long  ago  the  rule  was  that  a  stream  of 
goods  ran  eastward  over  the  Alleghanies,  and  another 
stream  of  supplies  came  back,  so  that  the  West  had  lit- 

13 


tie  gain  to  show.  But  during  the  past  five  years  this 
back-setting  current  has  been  a  stream  of  money  re- 
turned for  the  products  the  West  has  distributed.  The 
West  is  now  selling  to  the  East  and  to  Europe  and  get- 
ting money  in  return,  because  it  is  manufacturing  for  it- 
self, as  well  as  tilling  the  soil  and  mining  for  the  rest  of 
the  world.  It  therefore  earns  money  and  acquires  a 
profit  instead  of  continuing  its  former  process  of  toiling 
merely  to  obtain  from  the  East  the  necessaries  of  life. 

The  condition  in  which  Nebraska  and  Kansas  find 
themselves  is  the  condition  in  which  a  great  part  of  the 
West  was  placed  not  long  ago — a  condition  of  debt,  of 
being  mortgaged,  and  of  having  to  send  its  earnings  to 
Eastern  capitalists.  That  is  no  longer  the  case  of  the 
West  in  general.  The  debtor  States  now  are  Kansas, 
Nebraska,  the  two  Dakotas,  and  western  Minnesota ; 
but  Iowa,  Illinois,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Wisconsin, 
and  Michigan  (the  States  most  closely  tributary  to  Chi- 
cago) have  paid  off  their  mortgages,  and  are  absorbing 
money  and  investing  it  in  local  improvements.  What 
they  earn  is  now  their  own,  and  it  comes  back  to  them 
in  the  form  of  money.  This  money  used  to  be  shipped 
to  the  East,  to  which  these  States  were  in  debt,  but 
now  it  is  invested  where  it  is  earned,  and  the  conse- 
quence has  been  that  in  the  last  five  or  six  years  the 
West  has  rarely  shipped  any  currency  East,  but  has 
been  constantly  drawing  it  from  there. 

In  this  change  of  condition  is  seen  an  explanation  of 
much  that  has  made  Chicago  peculiar.  She  has  been 
what  she  would  call  "  hustling."  For  years,  in  com- 
pany with  the  entire  Western  country,  she  has  been 
making  money  only  to  pay  debts  with.  That,  they  say, 
is  why  men  in  Chicago  have  talked  only  "  business ;" 

14 


that  is  why  Chicago  has  had  no  leisure  class,  no  res- 
ervoir of  home  capital  seeking  investment.  The  for- 
mer conditions  having  changed,  now  that  she  is  pro- 
ducing more  and  buying  less,  the  rest  will  change 
also. 

When  we  understand  what  are  the  agricultural  re- 
sources of  the  region  for  which  Chicago  is  the  trading- 
post,  we  perceive  how  certain  it  was  that  its  debt 
would  be  paid,  and  that  great  wealth  .would  follow. 
The  corn  lands  of  Illinois  return  a  profit  of  $15  to  the 
acre,  raising  50  to  60  bushels  at  42^  cents  a  bushel  last 
year,  and  at  a  cost  for  cultivation  of  only  $7  an  acre. 
Wheat  produces  $22.50  an  acre,  costs  a  little  less  than 
corn,  and  returns  a  profit  of  from  $12  to  $15.  Oats 
run  55  bushels  to  the  acre,  at  27  cents  a  bushel,  and 
cost  the  average  farmer  only,  say,  $6  an  acre,  returning 
$8  or  $9  an  acre  in  profit.  These  figures  will  vary  as 
to  production,  cost,  and  profit,  but  it  is  believed  that 
they  represent  a  fair  average.  This  midland  country, 
of  which  Chicago  is  the  capital,  produces  2,000,000,000 
bushels  of  corn,  700,000,000  bushels  of  oats,  50,000,000 
hogs,  28,000,000  horses,  30,000,000  sheep,  and  so  on,  to 
cease  before  the  reader  is  wearied ;  but  in  no  single 
instance  is  the  region  producing  within  50  per  cent,  of 
what  it  will  be  made  to  yield  before  the  expiration  of 
the  next  twenty  years.  Farming  there  has  been  hap- 
hazard, rude,  and  wasteful ;  but  as  it  begins  to  pay  well, 
the  methods  begin  to  improve.  Drainage  will  add  new 
lands,  and  better  methods  will  swell  the  crops,  so  that, 
for  instance,  where  60  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre  are 
now  grown,  at  least  100  bushels  will  be  harvested.  All 
the  corn  lands  are  now  settled,  but  they  are  not  im- 
proved. They  will  yet  double  in  value.  It  is  different 

15 


with  wheat;   with  that  the  maximum   production  will 
soon  be  attained. 

Such  is  the  wealth  that  Chicago  counts  up  as  tribu- 
tary to  her.  By  the  railroads  that  dissect  this  opulent 
region  she  is  riveted  to  the  midland,  the  southern,  and 
the  western  country  between  the  Rockies  and  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  She  is  closely  allied  to  the  South,  because  she 
is  manufacturing  and  distributing  much  that  the  South 
needs,  and  can  get  most  economically  from  her.  Chi- 
cago has  become  the  third  manufacturing  city  in  the 
Union,  and  she  is  drawing  manufactures  away  from  the 
East  faster  than  most  persons  in  the  East  imagine. 
To-day  it  is  a  great  Troy  stove-making  establishment 
that  has  moved  to  Chicago ;  the  week  before  it  was  a 
Massachusetts  shoe -factory  that  went  there.  Many 
great  establishments  have  gone  there,  but  more  must 
follow,  because  Chicago  is  not  only  the  centre  of  the 
midland  region  in  respect  of  the  distribution  of  made- 
up  wares,  but  also  for  the  concentration  of  raw  materi- 
als. Chicago  must  lead  in  the  manufacture  of  all  goods 
of  which  wood,  leather,  and  iron  are  the  bases.  The 
revolution  that  took  place  in  the  meat  trade  when  Chi- 
cago took  the  lead  in  that  industry  affected  the  whole 
leather  and  hide  industry.  Cattle  are  dropping  90,000 
skins  a  week  in  Chicago,  and  the  trade  is  confined  to 
Chicago,  St.  Louis,  Kansas  City,  Omaha,  and  St.  Paul. 
It  is  idle  to  suppose  that  those  skins  will  be  sent  across 
the  Alleghanies  to  be  turned  into  goods  and  sent  back 
again.  Wisconsin  has  become  a  great  tanning  State, 
and  all  over  the  district  close  around  Chicago  are  fac- 
tories and  factory  towns  where  hides  are  turned  into 
leather  goods.  The  West  still  gets  its  finer  goods  in 
the  East,  but  it  is  making  the  coarser  grades,  and  to 

16 


such  an  extent  as  to  give  a  touch  of  New  England  col- 
or to  the  towns  and  villages  around  Chicago. 

This  is  not  an  unnatural  rivalry  that  has  grown  up. 
The  former  condition  of  Western  dependence  was  un- 
natural. The  science  of  profitable  business  lies  in  the 
practice  of  economy.  Chicago  has  in  abundance  all  the 
fuels  except  hard  coal.  She  has  coal,  oil,  stone,  brick — 
everything  that  is  needed  for  building  and  for  living. 
Manufactures  gravitate  to  such  a  place  for  economical 
reasons.  The  population  of  the  north  Atlantic  division, 
including  Pennslyvania  and  Massachusetts,  and  acknowl- 
edging New  York  as  its  centre,  is  17,401,000.  The  pop- 
ulation of  the  northern  central  division,  trading  with 
Chicago,  is  22,362,279.  Every  one  has  seen  each  suc- 
ceeding census  shift  the  centre  of  population  farther 
and  farther  West,  but  not  every  one  is  habituated  to 
putting  two  and  two  together. 

"  Chicago  is  yet  so  young  and  busy,"  said  he  who  is 
perhaps  the  leading  banker  there,  "  she  has  no  time  for 
anything  beyond  each  citizen's  private  affairs.  It  is 
hard  to  get  men  to  serve  on  a  committee.  The  only 
thing  that  saves  us  from  being  boors  is  our  civic  pride. 
We  are  fond,  proud,  enthusiastic  in  that  respect.  But 
we  know  that  Chicago  is  not  rich,  like  New  York.  She 
has  no  bulk  of  capital  lying  ready  for  investment  and 
reinvestment ;  yet  she  is  no  longer  poor.  She  has  just 
got  over  her  poverty,  and  the  next  stage,  bringing  accu- 
mulated wealth,  will  quickly  follow.  Her  growth  in  this 
respect  is  more  than  paralleled  by  her  development  into 
an  industrial  centre." 

So  much,  then,  for  Chicago's  reasons  for  existence. 
The  explanation  forms  not  merely  the  history  of  an 
American  town,  and  a  town  of  young  men,  it  points  an 
u  17 


old  moral.  It  demonstrates  anew  the  active  truth  that 
energy  is_  a  greater  force  than  money.  It  commands 
money.  The  young  founders  of  Chicago  were  backed 
in  the  East  by  capitalists  who  discounted  the  energy 
they  saw  them  display.  And  now  Chicago  capitalists 
own  the  best  street  railway  in  St.  Louis,  the  surface 
railway  system  of  Toledo,  a  thousand  enterprises  in 
hundreds  of  Western  towns. 

Chicago  has  been  as  crude  and  rough  as  any  other 
self-creating  entity  engaged  in  a  hard  struggle  for  a  liv- 
ing. And  latterly  confidence  in  and  exultation  over  the 
inevitable  success  of  the  battle  have  made  her  boastful, 
conceited,  and  noisy.  But  already  one  citizen  has  taken 
to  building  houses  for  rental  and  not  for  sale.  He  has 
arranged  an  imitation  Astor  estate  as  far  ahead  as  the 
law  will  permit,  which  is  to  say,  to  one  generation  un- 
born. Already,  so  they  boast  in  Chicago,  you  may  see 
a  few  tables  in  the  Chicago  Club  surrounded  by  whist- 
players  with  gray  locks  and  semispherical  waistcoats  in 
the  afternoons  during  business  hours! — a  most  surprising 
thing,  and  only  possible  at  the  Chicago  Club,  which  is 
the  old  club  of  the  "  old  rich."  These  partially  globular 
old  whist-players  are  still  in  business,  of  course,  as  every- 
body is,  but  they  let  go  with  one  hand,  as  it  were,  in  the 
afternoons,  and  only  stroll  around  to  their  offices  at  four 
or  five  o'clock  to  make  certain  that  the  young  members 
of  the  other  clubs  have  not  stolen  their  trade  while  they 
were  playing  cards.  The  other  clubs  of  Chicago  merely 
look  like  clubs,  as  we  understand  the  word  in  New  York. 
They  are  patronized  as  our  dining-clubs  are,  with  a  rush 
at  luncheon-time,  although  at  both  ends  of  the  town,  in 
the  residence  districts,  there  are  clubs  to  which  men 
drift  on  Sundays. 

18 


And  here  one  is  brought  to  reflect  that  Chicago  is 
distinctly  American.  I  know  that  the  Chicagoans  boast 
that  theirs  is  the  most  mixed  population  in  the  country, 
but  the  makers  and  movers  of  Chicago  are  Americans. 
The  streets  of  the  city  are  full  of  strange  faces  of  a  type 
to  which  we  are  not  used  in  the  East — a  dish-faced,  soft- 
eyed,  light-haired  people.  They  are  Scandinavians;  but 
they  are  as  malleable  as  lead,  and  quickly  and  easily  fol- 
low and  adopt  every  Americanism.  In  return,  they  ask 
only  to  be  permitted  to  attend  a  host  of  Lutheran 
churches  in  flocks,  to  work  hard,  live  temperately,  save 
thriftily,  and  to  pronounce  every /  as  if  it  were  a  y.  But 
the  dominating  class  is  of  that  pure  and  broad  American 
type  which  is  not  controlled  by  New  England  or  any 
other  tenets,  but  is  somewhat  loosely  made  up  of  the 
overflow  of  the  New  England,  the  Middle,  and  the 
Southern  States.  It  is  as  mixed  and  comprehensive 
as  the  West  Point  school  of  cadets.  It  calls  its  city 
"  She-caw-ger."  It  inclines  to  soft  hats,  and  only  once 
in  a  great  while  does  a  visitor  see  a  Chicagoan  who  has 
the  leisure  or  patience  to  carry  a  cane.  Its  signs  are 
eloquent  of  its  habits,  especially  of  its  habit  of  freedom. 

"  Take  G 's  candy  to  the  loved  ones  at  home,"  stares 

from  hundreds  of  walls.  "Gentlemen  all  chew  Fraxy 
because  it  sweetens  the  breath  after  drinking,"  one  man- 
ufacturer declares ;  then  he  adds,  "  Ladies  who  play  ten- 
nis chew  it  because  it  lubricates  the  throat."  A  bottler 
of  spring  water  advertises  it  as  "  God's  own  liver  rem- 
edy." On  the  bill -boards  of  a  theatre  is  the  threat 
that  "  If  you  miss  seeing  Peter  Peterson,  half  your 
life  will  be  gone."  In  a  principal  street  is  a  charac- 
teristic sign  product,  "  My  fifteen-cent  meals  are  world- 
beaters;"  yet  there  are  worse  terrors  for  Chicago  diners- 

19 


out,  as  is  shown  by  the  sign,  "  Business  lunch — quick 
and  cheap." 

But  the  visitor's  heart  warms  to  the  town  when  he 
sees  its  parks  and  its  homes.  In  them  is  ample  assur- 
ance that  not  every  breath  is  "  business,"  and  not  every 
thought  commercial.  Once  out  of  the  thicket  of  the 
business  and  semi-business  district,  the  dwellings  of  the 
people  reach  mile  upon  mile  away  along  pleasant  boule- 
vards and  avenues,  or  facing  noble  parks  and  parkways, 
or  in  a  succession  of  villages  green  and  gay  with  foliage 
and  flowers.  They  are  not  cliff  dwellings  like  our  flats 
and  tenements ;  there  are  no  brownstone  canons  like 
our  up-town  streets  ;  there  are  only  occasional  hesitating 
hints  there  of  those  Philadelphian  and  Baltimorean  mills 
that  grind  out  dwellings  all  alike,  as  nature  makes  pease 
and  man  makes  pins.  There  are  more  miles  of  detached 
villas  in  Chicago  than  a  stranger  can  easily  account  for. 
As  they  are  not  only  found  on  Prairie  Avenue  and  the 
boulevards,  but  in  the  populous  wards  and  semi-suburbs, 
where  the  middle  folk  are  congregated,  it  is  evident  that 
the  prosperous  moiety  of  the  population  enjoys  living 
better  (or  better  living)  than  the  same  fraction  in  the 
Atlantic  cities. 

Land  in  New  York  has  been  too  costly  to  permit  of 
these  villa-like  dwellings,  but  that  does  not  alter  the 
fact  that  existence  in  a  home  hemmed  in  by  other 
houses  is  at  best  but  a  crippled  living.  There  never  has 
been  any  valid  excuse  for  the  building  of  these  com- 
pressed houses  by  New  York  millionaires.  It  sounds 
like  a  Celtic  bull,  but,  in  my  opinion,  the  poorer  million- 
aires of  Prairie  Avenue  are  better  off.  A  peculiarity  of 
the  buildings  of  Chicago  is  in  the  great  variety  of  build- 
ing-stones that  are  employed  in  their  construction. 


Where  we  would  build  two  blocks  of  brownstone,  I 
have  counted  thirteen  varieties  of  beautiful  and  differ- 
ing building  material.  Moreover,  the  contrasts  in  archi- 
tectural design  evidence  among  Chicago  house-owners 
a  complete  sway  of  individual  taste.  It  is  in  these  beau- 
tiful homes  that  the  people,  who  do  not  know  what  to 
do  with  their  club-houses,  hold  their  card-parties ;  it  is 
to  them  that  they  bring  their  visitors  and  friends;  in 
short,  it  is  at  home  that  the  Chicagoan  recreates  and 
loafs. 

It  is  said,  and  I  have  no  reason  to  doubt  it,  that  the 
clerks  and  small  tradesmen  who  live  in  thousands  of 
these  pretty  little  boxes  are  the  owners  of  their  homes ; 
also  that  the  tenements  of  the  rich  display  evidence  of 
a  tasteful  and  costly  garnering  of  the  globe  for  articles 
of  luxury  and  virtu.  A  sneering  critic,  who  wounded 
Chicago  deeply,  intimated  that  theirs  must  be  a  primi- 
tive society  where  the  rich  sit  on  their  door-steps  of  an 
evening.  That  really  is  a  habit  there,  and  in  the  finer 
districts  of  all  the  Western  cities.  To  enjoy  themselves 
the  more  completely,  the  people  bring  out  rugs  and 
carpets,  always  of  gay  colors,  and  fling  them  on  the 
steps — or  stoops,  as  we  Dutch  legatees  should  say — 
that  the  ladies'  dresses  may  not  be  soiled.  As  these 
step  clothings  are  as  bright  as  the  maidens'  eyes  and  as 
gay  as  their  cheeks,  the  effect  may  be  imagined.  For 
my  part,  I  think  it  argues  well  for  any  society  that  in- 
dulges in  the  trick,  and  proves  existence  in  such  a  city 
to  be  more  human  and  hearty  and  far  less  artificial  than 
where  there  is  too  much  false  pride  to  permit  of  it.  In 
front  of  many  of"  the  nice  hotels  the  boarders  lug  out 
great  arm-chairs  upon  the  portal  platforms  or  beside  the 
curbs.  There  the  men  sit  in  rows,  just  as  I  can  remem- 

21 


her  seeing  them  do  in  front  of  the  New  York  Hotel  and 
the  old  St.  Nicholas  Hotel  in  happy  days  of  yore,  to 
smoke  in  the  sunless  evening  air,  and  to  exchange  com- 
ments on  the  weather  and  the  passers-by.  If  the  dead 
do  not  rise  until  the  Judgment  Day,  but  lie  less  active 
than  their  dust,  then  old  Wouter  Van  Twiller,  Petrus 
Stuyvesant,  and  the  rest  of  our  original  Knickerbockers 
will  be  sadly  disappointed  angels  when  they  come  to, 
and  find  that  we  have  abandoned  these  practices  in 
New  York,  after  the  good  example  that  our  first  fami- 
lies all  set  us. 

It  is  in  Chicago  that  we  find  a  great  number  of  what 
are  called  boulevarded  streets,  at  the  intersections  of 
which  are  signs  bearing  such  admonitions  as  these : 
"  For  pleasure  driving.  No  traffic  wagons  allowed ;" 
or,  "  Traffic  teams  are  not  allowed  on  this  boulevard." 
Any  street  in  the  residence  parts  of  the  city  may  be  bou- 
levarded and  turned  over  to  the  care  of  the  park  com- 
missioners of  the  district,  provided  that  it  does  not  lie 
next  to  any  other  such  street,  and  provided  that  a  certain 
proportion  of  the  property-holders  along  it  are  minded 
to  follow  a  simple  formula  to  procure  the  improvement. 
Improved  road-beds  are  given  to  such  streets,  and  they 
not  only  become  neat  and  pretty,  but  enhance  the  value 
of  all  neighboring  land.  One  boulevard  in  Chicago  pene- 
trates to  the  very  heart  of  its  bustling  business  district. 
By  means  of  it  men  and  women  may  drive  from  the 
southern  suburbs  or  parks  to  the  centre  of  trade,  perhaps 
to  their  office  doors,  under  the  most  pleasant  conditions. 
By  means  of  the  lesser  beautified  avenues  among  the 
dwellings  men  and  women  may  sleep  of  nights,  and  hide 
from  the  worst  of  the  city's  tumult  among  green  lawns 
and  flower-beds. 

22 


Chicago's  park  system  is  so  truly  her  crown,  or  its  dia- 
dem, that  its  fame  may  lead  to  the  thought  that  enough 
has  been  said  about  it.  That  is  not  the  case,  however, 
for  the  parks  change  and  improve  so  constantly  that  the 
average  Chicagoan  finds  some  of  them  outgrowing  his 
knowledge,  unless  he  goes  to  them  as  he  ought  to  go  to 
his  prayers.  It  is  not  in  extent  that  the  city's  parks 
are  extraordinary,  for,  all  told,  they  comprise  less  than 
2000  acres.  It  is  the  energy  that  has  given  rise  to 
them,  and  the  taste  and  enthusiasm  which  have  been 
expended  upon  them,  that  cause  our  wonder.  Sand  and 
swamp  were  at  the  bottom  of  them,  and  if  their  surfaces 
now  roll  in  gentle  undulations,  it  is  because  the  earth 
that  was  dug  out  for  the  making  of  ponds  has  been  sub- 
sequently applied  to  the  forming  of  hills  and  knolls. 
The  people  go  to  some  of  them  upon  the  boulevards  of 
which  I  have  spoken,  beneath  trees  and  beside  lawns 
and  gorgeous  flower-beds,  having  their  senses  sharpened 
in  anticipation  of  the  pleasure-grounds  beyond,  as  the 
heralds  in  some  old  plays  prepare  us  for  the  action  that 
is  to  follow.  Once  the  parks  are  reached,  they  are  found 
to  be  literally  for  the  use  of  the  people  who  own  them. 
I  have  a  fancy  that  a  people  who  are  so  largely  American 
would  not  suffer  them  to  be  otherwise.  There  are  no 
signs  warning  the  public  off  the  grass,  or  announcing 
that  they  "  may  look,  but  mustn't  touch"  whatever  there 
is  to  see.  The  people  swarm  all  over  the  grass,  and  yet 
it  continues  beautiful  day  after  day  and  year  after  year. 
The  floral  displays  seem  unharmed  ;  at  any  rate,  we  have 
none  to  compare  with  them  in  any  Atlantic  coast  parks. 
The  people  even  picnic  on  the  sward,  and  those  who 
can  appreciate  such  license  find,  ready  at  hand,  baskets 
in  which  to  hide  the  litter  which  follows.  And,  O  ye 

c  23 


who  manage  other  parks  we  wot  of,  know  that  these 
Chicago  playgrounds  seem  as  free  from  harm  and  eye- 
sore as  any  in  the  land. 

The  best  parks  face  the  great  lake,  and  get  wondrous 
charms  of  dignity  and  beauty  from  it.  At  the  North 
Side  the  Lincoln  Park  commissioners,  at  great  expense, 
are  building  out  into  the  lake,  making  a  handsome  paved 
beach,  sea-wall,  esplanade,  and  drive  to  enclose  a  long, 
broad  body  of  the  lake  water.  Although  the  great  blue 
lake  is  at  the  city's  edge,  there  is  little  or  no  sailing  or 
pleasure-boating  upon  it.  It  is  too  rude  and  treacherous. 
Therefore  these  commissioners  of  the  Lincoln  Park  are 
enclosing,  behind  their  new-made  land,  a  watercourse 
for  sailing  and  rowing,  for  racing,  and  for  more  indolent 
aquatic  sport.  The  Lake  Shore  Drive,  when  completed, 
will  be  three  miles  in  length,  and  will  connect  with  yet 
another  notable  road  to  Fort  Sheridan  twenty-five  miles 
in  length.  All  these  beauties  form  part  of  the  main  ex- 
hibit at  the  Columbian  Exposition.  Realizing  this,  the 
municipality  has  not  only  voted  $5,000,000  to  the  Ex- 
position, but  has  set  apart  $3,500,000  for  beautifying 
and  improving  the  city  in  readiness  for  the  Exposition 
and  its  visitors,  even  as  a  bride  decketh  herself  for  her 
husband.  That  is  well  ;  but  it  is  not  her  beauty  that 
will  most  interest  the  visitors  to  Chicago. 

I  have  an  idea  that  all  this  is  very  American  ;  but 
what  is  to  be  said  of  the  Chicago  Sunday,  with  its  drink- 
ing-shops  all  wide  open,  and  its  multitudes  swarming  out 
on  pleasure  bent  ?  And  what  of  the  theatres  open- 
ing to  the  best  night's  business  of  the  week  at  the  hour 
of  Sunday  evening  service  in  the  churches  ?  I  suspect 
that  this  also  is  American — that  sort  of  American  that 
develops  under  Southern  and  Western  influences  not 

24 


dominated  by  the  New  England  spirit.  And  yet  the 
Puritan  traditions  are  not  without  honor  and  respect  in 
Chicago,  witness  the  fact  that  the  city  spent  $17,250,000 
during  the  past  five  years  upon  her  public  schools. 

Another  thing  that  I  suspect  is  American,  though  I 
am  sorry  to  say  it,  is  the  impudence  of  the  people  who 
wait  on  the  public.  It  is  quite  certain  that  the  more 
intelligent  a  man  is,  the  better  waiter  he  will  make;  but 
your  free-born  American  acknowledges  a  quality  which 
more  than  offsets  his  intelligence.  In  pursuit  of  knowl- 
edge I  went  to  a  restaurant,  which  was  splendid  if  it  was 
not  good,  and  the  American  who  waited  on  me  lightened 
his  service  with  song  in  this  singular  manner:  "Com- 
rades, com — you  said  coffee,  didn't  yer? — ever  since  we 
were  boys ;  sharing  each  other's  sor — I  don't  think  we've 
got  no  Roquefort — sharing  each  other's  joys.  Brie,  then 
— keerect!"  (I  recall  this  against  my  country,  not  against 
Chicago  restaurants.  A  city  which  possesses  Harvey's, 
Kinsley's,  or  the  Wellington  need  not  be  tender  on  that 
point.)  But  it  is  as  much  as  a  man's  self-respect  is  worth 
to  hazard  a  necessary  question  of  a  ticket-seller  in  a  the- 
atre or  railroad  depot.  Those  bona  fide  Americans,  the 
colored  men,  are  apt  to  try  their  skill  at  repartee  with 
the  persons  they  serve ;  and  while  I  cannot  recall  an  in- 
stance when  a  hotel  clerk  was  impudent,  I  several  times 
heard  members  of  that  fraternity  yield  to  a  sense  of  hu- 
mor that  would  bankrupt  a  Broadway  hotel  in  three 
weeks.  In  only  one  respect  are  the  servitors  of  the  Chi- 
cago public  like  the  French ;  they  boast  the  same  motto 
— "  Liberty,  equality,  fraternity." 

There  is  another  notable  thing  in  Chicago  which,  I  am 
certain,  is  a  national  rather  than  a  merely  local  peculi- 
arity. I  refer  to  dirty  streets.  In  our  worst  periods  in 

25 


New  York  we  resort  to  a  Latin  trick  of  tidying  up  our 
most  conspicuous  thoroughfares,  and  leaving  the  others 
to  the  care  of — I  think  it  must  be  the  Federal  Weather 
Bureau  to  whose  care  we  leave  them.  However,  nearly 
all  American  cities  are  disgracefully  alike  in  this  respect, 
and  until  some  dying  patriot  bequeaths  the  money  to 
send  every  Alderman  (back)  to  Europe  to  see  how  streets 
should  and  can  be  kept,  it  is,  perhaps,  idle  to  discuss  the 
subject.  But  these  are  all  comparative  trifles.  Certainly 
they  will  seem  such  to  whoever  shall  look  into  the  sit- 
uation of  Chicago  closely  enough  to  discover  the  great 
problems  that  lie  before  the  people  as  a  corporation. 

She  will  take  up  these  questions  in  their  turn  and  as 
soon  as  possible,  and,  stupendous  as  they  are,  no  one 
who  understands  the  enterprise  and  energy  of  Chicago 
will  doubt  for  a  moment  that  she  will  master  them 
shrewdly. 

These  problems  are  of  national  interest,  and  one  is  a 
subject  of  study  throughout  Christendom.  They  deal 
with  the  disciplining  of  the  railroads,  which  run  through 
the  city  at  a  level  with  the  streets,  and  with  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  efficient  system  of  drainage  or  sewage. 
A  start  has  been  made  for  the  handling  of  the  sewage 
question.  The  little  Chicago  River  flows  naturally  into 
the  great  lake  ;  but  years  ago  an  attempt  to  alter  its 
course  was  made  by  the  operation  of  pumping-works  at 
Bridgeport,  within  the  city  limits,  whereby  40,000  gallons 
of  water  per  minute  are  pumped  out  of  the  river,  and 
into  a  canal  that  connects  with  the  Illinois  River,  and 
thence  with  the  Mississippi  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  At 
'  most  times  this  causes  a  sluggish  flow  of  the  river  south- 
ward away  from  the  lake.  Water  from  the  lake  is  also 
pumped  into  the  river  to  dilute  its  waters,  but  it  remains 

26 


a  noisome  stream,  a  sewer  in  fact,  whose  waters  at  times 
flow  or  are  driven  into  Lake  Michigan  to  pollute  the 
city's  water  supply.  "  Measures  have  been  taken  to  con- 
struct a  large  gravity  channel  as  an  outlet  for  the  sewage 
into  the  Illinois  River.  The  Chicago  Sanitary  District 
has  been  formed  by  act  of  -Legislature;  nine  trustees 
have  been  elected  to  supervise  the  construction  of  the 
channel,  engineers  have  been  set  at  work  upon  surveys," 
and  perhaps  the  channel  which  will  result  will  serve  the 
double  purpose  of  disposing  of  the  sewage  and  establish- 
ing a  navigable  waterway  connecting  Chicago  and  her 
commerce  with  the  Mississippi  River.  It  is  said  that 
this  will  cost  Chicago  $20,000,000.  Honestly  done,  it 
will  certainly  be  worth  whatever  it  costs. 

Chicago's  water  supply  has  been  linked  with  this  sew- 
age problem.  It  does  not  join  with  it.  Once  the  sewage 
matter  were  settled,  the  old  two-mile  crib  in  Lake  Mich- 
igan would  bring  to  town  water  than  which  there  is  none 
more  pure  on  earth.  The  four-mile  tunnel  and  crib  now 
in  course  of  construction  (that  is  to  say,  the  tunnel  and 
gate  pushed  four  miles  out  into  the  lake)  certainly  will 
leave  nothing  to  be  desired,  even  as  the  sewage  is  now 
ordered. 

The  railroad  question  is  more  bothersome.  Chicago 
is  criss-crossed  by  a  gridiron  of  railway  tracks.  Practi- 
cally all  of  them  enter  the  city  and  dissect  the  streets 
at  grade  ;  that  is  to  say,  at  the  level  of  the  city's  arteries. 
Speaking  not  too  loosely,  the  locomotives  and  cars  man- 
gle or  kill  two  persons  on  every  week-day  in  the  year, 
or  six  hundred  persons  annually.  The  railroad  officials 
argue  that  they  invented  and  developed  Chicago,  and 
that  her  people  are  ungrateful  to  protest  against  a  little 
thing  like  a  slaughter  which  would  depopulate  an  ordi- 

27 


nary  village  in  a  year.  In  so  far  as  it  is  true  that  they 
created  the  city,  they  will  but  repeat  the  experience  of 
that  fabled  inventor  whose  monstrous  mechanical  off- 
spring claimed  him  for  its  victim,  for,  in  a  wholesome 
public -spirited  sense,  that  is  what  must  become  their 
fate.  Chicago  is  ten  miles  deep  and  twenty-four  miles 
wide,  and  the  railroads  (nearly  all  using  a  number  of 
tracks)  all  terminate  within  4000  feet  of  the  Rookery 
Building.  I  rely  on  the  accuracy  of  a  noted  Chicagoan 
for  that  measurement.  The  Rookery  is  situated  very 
much  as  the  Bank  of  England  is  in  London  and  as  the 
City  Hall  is  in  New  York,  so  that  it  will  be  seen  that 
Chicago  is  at  the  mercy  of  agencies  that  should  be  her 
servants,  and  not  her  masters. 

Some  railroad  men,  looking  from  their  .stand -point, 
assert  that  it  will  cost  Chicago  $100,000,000  to  over- 
come this  injury  to  her  comfort  and  her  safety.  This 
assertion  is  often  echoed  in  Chicago  by  men  not  in  the 
railroad  business.  On  the  other  hand,  I  shall  be  sur- 
prised if  the  railroads  do  not  have  to  bear  a  large  share 
of  the  cost,  whatever  it  may  prove  to  be,  because  I  take 
it  that  Chicago  will  not  fail  to  profit  by  the  experiences 
of  other  cities  where  this  problem  has  already  been 
dealt  with,  and  where  it  has  not  been  so  lightly  taken 
for  granted  that  when  railroads  are  in  the  way  of  the 
people,  it  is  the  people,  and  not  the  railroads,  who  must 
pay  to  move  them  out  of  the  way.  The  sum  of  present 
human  judgment  seems  to  be  that  the  cost  is  divisible, 
and  that  the  railroads  should  look  after  their  tracks,  and 
the  people  after  their  streets. 

The  entire  nation  will  observe  with  keen  interest  the 
manner  in  which  Chicago  deals  with  this  problem,  not 
with  any  anticipation  of  an  unjust  solution  that  will 

28 


trespass  on  the  popular  rights,  but  to  note  the  determi- 
nation of  the  lesser  question,  whether  the  railroads  shall 
be  compelled  to  sink  their  tracks  in  trenches  or  to  raise 
them  on  trusses,  or  whether,  as  has  also  been  suggested, 
all  the  roads  shall  combine  to  build  and  terminate  at  a 
common  elevated  structure  curving  around  the  outside 
of  the  thick  of  the  city,  and  capable  of  transferring  pas- 
sengers from  road  to  road,  as  well  as  of  distributing  them 
among  points  easily  accessible  from  every  district. 

One  would  think  it  would  be  to  the  advantage  of  the 
principal  railway  corporations  to  try'at  once  to  effect  an 
agreement  among  themselves  and  with  the  city  for  this 
reform,  because,  as  I  have  said,  the  railroads  are  now  the 
slowest  of  Chicago's  institutions.  The  reduced  speed  at 
which  the  municipality  obliges  them  to  run  their  trains 
must  be  still  further  modified,  and  even  the  present 
headway  is  hindered  by  the  frequent  delays  at  the  nu- 
merous crossings  of  the  tracks.  This  is  a  nuisance. 
Every  occasional  traveller  feels  it,  and  what  must  it  be 
to  the  local  commuters  who  live  at  a  distance  from  their 
business?  They  move  by  slow  stages  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  or  more  before  the  cars  in  which  they  ride  are  able 
to  get  under  the  scheduled  headway.  But  it  is  more 
than  a  local  question.  It  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of 
Chicago  that  she  arrests  a  great  proportion  of  the  trav- 
elling public  that  seeks  destinations  beyond  her  limits 
in  either  direction.  They  may  not  want  to  go  to  Chi- 
cago at  all,  but  it  is  the  rule  of  most  roads  that  they 
must  do  so.  They  must  stop,  transfer  baggage,  and 
change  railroads.  Often  a  stay  at  a  hotel  is  part  of  the 
requirement.  If  this  is  to  continue,  the  public  might  at 
least  have  the  performance  expedited.  Both  the  local 
and  the  general  nuisance  will,  in  all  likelihood,  be  reme- 

29 


died  together.  It  is  the  aim  of  all  progressive  railroad 
managers  to  shorten  time  and  prevent  transfers  wherever 
possible ;  and  delays  against  which  the  entire  travelling 
public  protests  cannot  long  avoid  remedy. 

In  interviews  with  Chicago  men  the  newspapers  have 
obtained  many  estimates  of  the  number  of  visitors  who 
will  attend  the  Columbian  Exposition.  One  calculation, 
which  is  called  conservative,  is  that  10,000,000  persons 
will  see  the  display,  and  will  leave  $300,000,000  in  the 
city.  It  is  not  easy  to  judge  of  such  estimates,  but  we 
know  that  there  is  a  wider  interest  in  this  Exposition 
than  in  any  that  was  ever  held.  We  know  also  that  in 
the  foremost  countries  of  Europe  workmen's  clubs  and 
popular  lotteries  have  been  established  or  projected  for 
the  purpose  of  sending  their  most  fortunate  participants 
to  Chicago — a  few  of  many  signs  of  an  uncommon  de- 
sire to  witness  the  great  exhibition. 

Whatever  these  visitors  have  heard  or  thought  of  Chi- 
cago, they  will  find  it  not  only  an  impressive  but  a  sub- 
stantial city.  It  will  speak  to  every  understanding  of 
the  speed  with  which  it  is  hastening  to  a  place  among 
the  world's  capitals.  Those  strangers  who  travel  farther 
in  our  West  may  find  other  towns  that  have  builded 
too  much  upon  the  false  prospects  of  districts  where 
the  crops  have  proved  uncertain.  They  may  see  still 
other  showy  cities,  where  the  main  activity  is  in  the  di- 
rection of  "swapping"  real  estate.  It  is  a  peculiar  in- 
dustry, accompanied  by  much  bustle  and  lying.  But 
they  will  not  find  in  Chicago  anything  that  will  disturb 
its  tendency  to  impress  them  with  a  solidity  and  a  de- 
gree of  enterprise  and  prosperity  that  are  only  excelled 
by  the  almost  idolatrous  faith  of  the  people  in  their 
community.  The  city's  broad  and  regular  thorough- 

30 


fares  will  astonish  many  of  us  who  have  imbibed  the 
theory  that  streets  are  first  mapped  out  by  cows ;  its 
alley  system  between  streets  will  win  the  admiration  of 
those  who  live  where  alleys  are  unknown  ;  its  many 
little  homes  will  speak  volumes  for  the  responsibility 
and  self-respect  of  a  great  body  of  its  citizens. 

The  discovery  that  the  city's  harbor  is  made  up  of 
forty-one  miles  of  the  banks  of  an  internal  river  will 
lead  to  the  satisfactory  knowledge  that  it  has  preserved 
a  great  part  of  its  beautiful  front  upon  Lake  Michigan 
as  an  ornament.  This  has  been  bordered  by  parks  and 
parkways  in  pursuance  of  a  plan  that  is  interrupted  to 
an  important  extent  only  where  a  pioneer  railway  came 
without  the  foreknowledge  that  it  would  eventually  de- 
velop into  a  nuisance  and  an  eyesore.  Its  splendid 
hotels,  theatres,  schools,  churches,  galleries,  and  public 
works  and  ornaments  will  commend  the  city  to  many 
who  will  not  study  its  commercial  side.  In  short,  it 
will  be  found  that  those  who  visit  the  Exposition  will 
not  afterwards  reflect  upon  its  assembled  proofs  of  the 
triumphs  of  man  and  of  civilization  without  recalling 
Chicago's  contribution  to  the  sum. 


CHAPTER   II 
HOW  CHICAGO  WAS   BORN 

WHETHER  they  are  fables  like  the  story  of  the  twins 
who  founded  Rome,  or  whether  they  are  as  tame  as  the 
account  of  the  purchase  of  Manhattan-  Island  from  the 
Indians,  there  is  always  something  peculiarly  interesting 
in  the  stories  of  the  babyhood  of  great  cities.  Their 
small  and  often  beggarly  beginnings,  the  little  promise 
they  give  of  the  mighty  size  and  importance  they  are 
to  achieve,  their  mishaps  and  setbacks,  which,  like  the 
illnesses  of  human  children,  seem  again  and  again  to 
threaten  their  tender  and  slender  existence — all  these 
narratives  that  make  up  history  become  more  and  more 
interesting  as  the  cities  themselves  grow  greater  and 
greater.  There  was  a  time  when  London  seems  to 
have  "  gone  out,"  like  a  lighted  candle  in  the  wind, 
or  like  those  great  cities  of  Africa  which  the  Bible 
tells  of,  and  which  now  are  but  ruins  and  broken  mem- 
ories. 

Stories  of  the  early  infantile  struggles  of  cities  seem 
like  stories  of  men ;  they  have  a  human  character  and 
interest.  Perhaps  it  is  because  they  are  mainly  tales  of 
what  men  did,  and  yet  there  are  accounts  of  earthquakes 
and  epidemics  and  fires,  in  which  the  parts  that  single 
individuals  did  are  lost  sight  of  or  not  told  at  all,  and 

32 


FIGURE  OK  "FIRE"  FOR  MACHINERY  HALT. 

(From  a  Photograph  by  O.  M.  Morris  &  Co.) 


we  either  see  the  cities  destroyed  forever,  or  quickly 
springing  up  again  like  new  trees  where  a  forest  had 
fallen. 

Whoever  goes  to  see  the  Columbian  Exposition  at 
Chicago  next  year  will  be  reminded  that  this  great 
American  city  had  an  uncommonly  lively  and  tragic 
adventure  in  its  childhood.  This  will  be  brought  to 
mind  by  the  sight  of  a  large  white  marble  tablet 
set  in  the  wall  of  a  storehouse  on  Michigan  Avenue 
close  to  the  Chicago  River,  which  cuts  the  big  city 
into  three  districts  —  the  north,  the  south,  and  the 
west. 

This  great  tablet  tells  of  the  first  important  building 
in  Chicago,  and  fixes  its  site.  Along  the  arched  top  of 
the  tall  slab  of  stone  are  these  words,  "  Block-house  of 
Fort  Dearborn."  Under  that  arch  is  a  carved  picture 
of  a  typical  wooden  fort  built  of  logs,  and  enclosed  by  a 
high,  thick  log  fence  or  "  palisadoe,"  as  our  forefathers 
would  have  called  it.  The  picture  shows  that  the  fort 
was  square,  and  the  second  story,  where  the  cannon 
peeped  out,  projected  beyond  the  first  story,  as  if  a 
large  box  had  been  built  on  top  of  a  smaller  one.  On 
the  roof  of  this  second  story  was  a  cupola  or  observa- 
tory, with  a  flag  flying  on  top  of  that.  Such  forts  were 
very  common  once.  Wherever  the  white  men  were  sur- 
rounded by  Indians,  or  were  pushing  our  frontier  farther 
and  farther  west,  they  put  up  such  block-houses  as  this 
— in  Canada  as  well  as  in  this  country.  New  York  City 
itself,  when  it  was  a  Dutch  trading-post,  had  its  little 
huddle  of  houses  inside  a  palisadoe  around  very  much 
such  a  fort. 

But  what  is  carved  in  letters  under  the  picture  holds 
the  passer-by  longer.     It  is  a  brief  account  of  the  birth 
0  33 


and  first  trouble  of  Chicago  when  it  was  a  baby  city. 
This  is  what  the  visitor  will  read  upon  the  tablet : 

"This  building  is  on  the  site  of  old  Fort  Dearborn,  which  ex- 
tended a  little  across  Michigan  Avenue  and  somewhat  into  the 
river  as  it  now  is. 

"The  fort  was  built  in  1803  &  4,  forming  our  outmost  defense. 

"  By  order  of  Gen.  Hull  it  was  evacuated  Aug.  15,  1812,  after 
its  stores  and  provisions  had  been  distributed  among  the  Ind- 
ians. Very  soon  after,  the  Indians  attacked  and  massacred  about 
fifty  of  the  troops  and  a  number  of  citizens,  including  women  and 
children,  and  next  day  burned  the  fort.  In  1816  it  was  rebuilt, 
but  after  the  Black  Hawk  war  it  went  into  general  disuse,  and  in 
May,  1837,  was  abandoned  by  the  army,  but  was  occupied  by  va- 
rious government  officers  till  1857,  when  it  was  torn  down,  ex- 
cepting a  single  building,  which  stood  upon  this  site  till  the  great 
fire  of  Oct.  9,  1871. 

"  At  the  suggestion  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society  this  tab- 
let was  erected  by  W.  M.  HOYT. 

"  Nov.,  1 880." 

Before  the  erection  of  that  fort  the  history  of  Chicago 
was  slight,  trifling,  broken,  and  obscure.  The  river  had 
been  found  by  Louis  Joliet,  the  agent  of  Count  Fronte- 
nac,  who  was  the  Governor  of  that  immense  territory 
extending  over  the  North-west,  and  called  New  France. 
At  any  rate,  Joliet  first  published  the  existence  of  the 
river  in  a  map  that  he  roughly  made.  Then  and  after- 
wards it  was  variously  called  Eschikagow  or  Checagow. 
In  the  language  of  the  Illinois  tribe  the  word  meant 
onion,  and  it  is  said  that  onions  grew  plentifully  along 
the  little  river.  Other  Indians  used  the  same  word  when 
they  spoke  of  a  polecat.  The  date  of  Joliet's  explora- 
tion was  about  1673. 

The  first  actual  settler  where  now  upwards  of  a  mill- 
ion persons  are  living  was  a  negro  named  Point  de  Sable, 

34 


who  had  a  cabin  on  the  river-side  in  1779,  and  who  grew 
noted  and  prosperous  as  a  trapper  and  fur-trader.  Other 
hunters  and  traders  came  and  settled  near  by,  and  soon 
the  black  pioneer  sold  his  business  to  a  Frenchman  and 
went  away. 

How  France  lost  her  territory  upon  the  lakes  and  east 
of  the  Mississippi,  how  England  ruled,  and  how  her  rule 
was  broken  by  our  Revolutionary  War,  are  matters  of 
general  history  in  which  this  little  trading-post  at  the 
southern  end  of  Lake  Michigan  took  no  part.  But  Chi- 
cago was  upon  our  new  American  frontier,  and  many  of 
the  wild  Indians  of  the  woods  and  the  plains  were  un- 
friendly to  us,  and  willing  to  harass  us  to  please  the 
British.  Therefore  Congress  was  urged  to  establish  a 
fort  farther  west  than  it  had  done  before,  to  show  the 
savages  our  soldiers,  and  to  impress  them  with  our  great- 
ness. Chicago  was  the  place  chosen  for  the  site  of  the 
new  fort.  The  nearest  western  frontier  posts  at  that 
time  were  Fort  Wayne,  Detroit,  and  Mackinac.  The 
latter  place  has  proven  a  dwarf.  It  has  nearly  stood 
still,  while  the  other  two  are  thriving  cities.  Mackinac 
was  known  as  "  Michilimacinac,"  and  is  now  a  beautiful 
and  lively  watering-place  in  summer  and  a  little  village 
in  winter. 

The  War  Department  issued  the  order  to  build  the 
fort,  and  Captain  John  Whistler,  then  at  Mackinac,  was 
sent  to  superintend  the  work.  The  captain  sailed  to 
Chicago  with  his  wife  and  son  and  the  young  man's 
bride.  The  private  soldiers  who  were  to  build  and  man 
the  fort  came  to  Chicago  by  land,  under  the  command 
of  Lieutenant  Swearington.  Theirs  was  a  perilous  jour- 
ney. The  captain's  boat  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Chi- 
cago River  in  July,  1803,  where  a  multitude  of  Indians 

35 


had  gathered  to  see  the  soldiers.  The  fort  was  finished 
in  1804.  A  village  grew  up  beside  it,  "but  it  was  a  vil- 
lage cut  off  from  all  the  world  of  civilized  beings.  Now 
and  then,  on  visits  far  apart,  a  sailing-vessel  brought 
supplies.  The  Indians  of  the  neighborhood  were  friend- 
ly, but  beyond  and  around  them  were  more  savage  red 
men  who  hated  the  Americans  and  plotted  to  destroy 
the  little  lonely  fort,  arguing  that  the  Americans  meant 
to  rob  the  red  men  of  their  hunting-grounds. 

The  officers  of  the  fort  were  changed  in  1811.  At 
that  time,  when  a  Captain  Heald  was  in  command,  the 
village  had  grown  considerably.  Captain  Heald's  wife 
and  several  other  women  lived  within  the  block-house 
enclosure.  The  settlers  outside  had  wives  and  children, 
and  there  were  already  some  farms  along  the  river-banks. 
Then  came  the  war  with  England  in  1812,  and  the  ter- 
rible massacre  wherein  the  majority  of  those  who  com- 
posed the  Chicago  of  that  day  were  slain. 

Fort  Michilimacinac,  and  then  Detroit,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  British.  General  Hull,  who  was  the  Amer- 
ican in  command  at  Detroit,  sent  word  to  Captain  Heald 
at  Fort  Dearborn  warning  him  of  his  peril,  and  advising 
him  to  leave  his  fort  and  save  himself  and  his  troops. 
Captain  Heald  got  the  same  advice  from  the  friendly 
Indians  and  the  white  men  around  him.  All  told  him 
that  if  he  would  divide  his  provisions  with  the  Indians, 
he  could  get  beyond  their  reach  while  they  feasted  and 
drank,  as  Indians  will  under  such  circumstances.  He 
was  told  to  do  this  at  once.  He  was  slow.  He  tardily 
called  a  council  of  the  Pottawatomies,  who  were  hostile 
and  dangerous,  and  promised  them  not  only  provisions, 
but  all  the  extra  arms  and  ammunition,  as  well  as  a  gift 
of  money.  They  were  pleased,  but  when  they  heard  of 

36 


the  defeats  we  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  British 
they  grew  insolent.  To  punish  them  for  some  act  that 
displeased  him  Captain  Heald  broke  his  word.  They 
found  that  he  had  destroyed  his  surplus  arms  and  broken 
in  the  heads  of  some  casks  of  the  liquor  he  had  promised 
them.  Even  some  Indians  who  had  been  friendly  to  the 
captain  now  joined  his  enemies.  „ 

A  Captain  Wells,  brother  to  Mrs.  Heald,  started  from 
Fort  Wayne,  leading  a  small  band  of  Miami  Indians,  to 
try  to  rescue  the  garrison  at  Fort  Dearborn.  He  arrived 
on  August  14,  1812,  and  succeeded,  apparently,  in  con- 
vincing the  commandant  that  he  must  fly  at  once,  for 
all  the  troops  abandoned  the  fort  on  the  next  day.  In 
all  about  sixscore  men,  women,  and  children  (the  garrison 
of  sixty-five  men  and  officers,  the  Indians  who  came  with 
Wells,  and  the  women  and  children  of  the  fort  and  vil- 
lage) started  for  Fort  Wayne.  They  marched  along 
the  lake-side  sands.  Where  they  marched  stands  Chi- 
cago, as  solid  as  London.  There  was  grass  or  prairie 
land  beyond,  and  over  that  crept  the  angry  Pottawato- 
mies.  Whatever  distribution  of  provisions  was  made, 
they  were  not  satisfied. 

It  is  said  that  they  had  reached  that  point  where 
Eighteenth  Street  now  ends  at  the  lake  when  Captain 
Wells,  who  was  leading,  rode  back  and  commanded  all 
to  form  in  military  order  and  charge  the  foe,  who  were 
about  to  make  an  attack.  His  words  had  a  deadly  echo, 
for  at  that  instant  the  massacre  began — the  Indians  fired 
upon  the  whites.  At  the  first  fire  the  wretched  Indian 
allies  ran  away.  The  others  fought  gallantly  and  hard. 
Again  and  again  they  drove  the  Indians  back  and  less- 
ened their  numbers.  Captain  Wells,  Ensign  Ronan,  a 
settler  named  Kinzie,  and  other  heroes,  showed  wonder- 

37 


ful  courage.    Ronan  fought  after  he  was  terribly  wound- 
ed, and  kept  firing  till  he  died. 

An  Indian  youth  found  several  children  in  a  wagon 
unprotected,  and  murdered  them  all.  But  for  this  the 
end  might  have  been  different,  for  when  another  mile 
had  been  fought  over,  an  attempt  was  made  to  parley 
with  the  Indians.  The  white  men  saw  that  it  was  cer- 
tain slaughter  to  continue  fighting.  Unfortunately,  Cap- 
tain Wells  then  learned  of  the  killing  of  the  little  chil- 
dren. He  became  wild  with  rage.  He  turned  and  made 
for  the  teepees  of  the  Indian  squaws  and  children.  He 
was  overtaken  and  killed,  and,  in  a  word,  such  was  the 
fate  of  seven  out  of  every  ten  in  the  party  that  had 
abandoned  Fort  Dearborn. 

The  farm-houses,  the  cabins  of  the  fur-traders,  and  the 
fort  itself,  all  fell  before  the  fury  of  the  red  men.  As 
we  have  seen  by  the  record  on  the  tablet  which  marks 
its  site,  it  was  rebuilt  in  1816,  but  after  that  its  history 
was  prosaic,  until  a  remnant  of  its  buildings  passed  away 
in  the  sea  of  flame  that  all  but  destroyed  the  great  city 
that  had  grown  up  around  it  in  1871. 

38 


CHAPTER    III 
THE   WAY   IT   IS   GOVERNED 

THE  city  government  of  Chicago  recalls  that  garment 
of  which  a  humble  poet  has  written, 

"  His  coat  so  large  dat  he  couldn't  pay  de  tailor, 
And  it  won't  go  half-way  round." 

It  is  a  Josephian  coat  of  many  colors,  made  up  of  patch- 
es of  county  methods  on  top  of  city  rule.  And  the 
patches  are,  some  of  them,  far  from  neatly  joined.  Like 
the  immortal  Topsy,  it  has  "just  growed."  It  dis- 
closes at  once  the  worst  and  the  best  examples  of  man- 
agement, the  one  being  so  very  bad  as  to  seem  like  a 
caricature  on  the  most  vicious  systems  elsewhere,  while 
the  other  extreme  copies  that  which  is  the  essence  of 
the  good  work  in  the  best-governed  city  in  the  world. 
Chicago,  therefore,  offers  an  extremely  valuable  opportu- 
nity for  the  study  and  comparison  of  municipal  meth- 
ods in  general. 

The  worst  feature,  that  which  seems  almost  to  carica- 
ture the  worst  products  of  partisan  politics,  is  seen  in 
the  Mayor's  office.  The  Mayor  of  Chicago  has  to  hide 
behind  a  series  of  locked  doors,  and  it  is  almost  as  dif- 
ficult to  see  him  as  it  would  be  to  visit  the  Prefect  of 
Police  in  Paris.  When  he  leaves  his  office  he  slips  out 

39 


of  a  side  door — the  same  by  which  he  seeks  his  desk. 
The  charm  that  the  door  possesses  for  his  eyes  is  that 
it  is  at  a  distance  from  the  public  antechamber  of  his 
suite  of  offices.  When  he  goes  to  luncheon  he  takes  a 
closed  cab,  and  is  driven  to  some  place  a  mile  or  more 
away,  in  order  that  he  may  eat  in  peace.  The  reason 
for  this  extraordinary  and  undemocratic  condition  of 
affairs  is  that  the  Mayor  of  Chicago  is  the  worst  victim 
of  the  spoils  system  that  has  yet  been  created  in  Amer- 
ica. The  chase  for  patronage  fetches  up  at  his  door, 
and  all  the  avenues  employed  in  it  end  at  his  person. 
He  is  almost  the  sole  source  and  dispenser  of  public 
place  of  every  grade. 

The  system  was  established  a  great  many  years  ago, 
and  they  say  in  Chicago  that  it  "  worked  well  enough  " 
under  Carter  Harrison,  because  after  he  got  his  munici- 
pal organization  complete  he  was  elected  and  re-elected 
several  times,  and  had  little  difficulty  in  keeping  the 
machinery  of  government  in  smooth  running  order.  It 
was  a  city  of  only  400,000  population  in  those  days, 
but  the  conditions  were  the  same.  The  experience  of 
a  succeeding  and  very  recent  Mayor  was  needed  to 
demonstrate  the  possibilities  of  an  office  so  constituted. 
He  spent  the  first  year  at  his  desk  in  handling  patron- 
age. He  could  do  nothing  else  because  he  undertook 
to  do  that.  He  made  it  his  rule  that  there  should  be 
no  appointments  that  were  not  approved  by  him.  The 
present  Mayor  is  of  the  opposite  mind.  He  has  found 
that  if  he  manages  the  patronage  he  cannot  perform  the 
other  duties  of  his  office.  He  has  inaugurated  a  new 
departure,  and  seeks  to  make  the  heads  of  the  subordi- 
nate departments  responsible  for  their  own  appoint- 
ments. This  works  only  partially,  because  the  place- 

40 


MODEL   FOR   THE   LIVE-STOCK    ENTRANCE 


hunters  are  not  to  be  deceived.  They  know  what  his 
powers  are  as  well  as  he  does,  and  if  they  do  not  get 
what  they  want  from  his  deputies,  they  fall  back  upon 
him.  He  orders  them  back  again  to  the  deputies,  and 
so  the  game  goes  on.  By  setting  apart  one  day  in  the 
week  for  the  scramble,  and  by  locking  himself  up  like  a 
watchman  in  a  safe-deposit  vault,  he  manages  to  serve 
as  Mayor.  But  he  finds  the  nuisance  very  great,  and 
says  so.  When  told  that  it  seemed  singular  to  find  a 
Mayor  behind  bolts  and  locks,  and  accessible  only  to 
those  who  "get  the  combination,"  as  the  safe -makers 
would  say,  he  replied  that  only  by  such  a  plan  was  he 
able  to  do  any  work.  Mr.  Washburne,  the  present  May- 
or, is  a  square -headed,  strong -jawed,  forcible -looking 
man,  under  the  middle  age  and  with  youthful  energy, 
who  gives  his  visitors  the  impression  that  he  will  leave 
as  good  a  record  as  the  system  can  be  forced  to  afford. 

Chicago  is  a  Republican  city,  but  is  rapidly  becoming 
Democratic.  There  are  no  "  bosses  "  or  "  machines  " 
there.  Western  soil  does  not  seem  suitable  for  those 
growths.  The  Democrats  have  been  trying  to  effect  an 
organization  like  that  of  Tammany  Hall,  but  they  are 
divided  into  two  factions,  and  the  plan  has  fallen  be- 
tween the  two.  The  Republicans  have  recently  recov- 
ered from  a  mild  attempt  at  bossism.  They  are  also  di- 
vided, and  only  unite  under  favorable  circumstances. 
The  assessment  evil  is  said  not  to  be  very  great.  Can- 
didates or  their  friends  contribute  towards  the  cost  of 
election  contests,  and  public  employes  are  assessed  for 
the  same  purpose,  but  these  outrageous  taxes  seem  to 
be  laid  on  lightly.  It's  your  machine  that  always  calls 
for  excessive  oiling,  and  it  is  noticeable  that  the  chief 
engineers  nearly  always  grow  mysteriously  rich. 

41 


In  the  city  government  there  are  four  charter  officers 
who  are  elected  by  the  people  —  the  Mayor,  the  City 
Treasurer,  the  City  Attorney,  and  the  City  Clerk.  Each 
is  independent  of  the  other,  and  the  Mayor  is  not  vest- 
ed with  power  to  remove  the  others.  The  City  Attor- 
ney is  in  charge  of  the  litigations  into  which  the  cor- 
poration is  drawn ;  but  the  more  important  legal  officer 
is  the  Corporation  Counsel,  who  acts  as  adviser  to 
the  government,  and  is  appointed  by  the  Mayor.  The 
manner  in  which  this  office  came  to  be  created  is  pecul- 
iar. It  is  said  that  a  score  or  more  years  ago  there 
was  elected  to  the  City  Attorney's  place  a  man  who 
knew  no  law,  and  proved  worse  than  no  attorney  at  all. 
A  competent  adviser'was  needed,  and  so  the  new  office 
was  created,  and  has  ever  since  remained  a  feature  of 
the  government. 

We  still  find  justices  of  the  peace  in  Chicago,  and  in 
great  force  of  numbers.  They  are  county  officers.  They 
have  jurisdiction  everywhere,  as  they  please  to  exer- 
cise it,  and  live  upon  their  fees — a  plan  that  works  no 
better  there  than  elsewhere,  that  causes  rivalry  and  con- 
fusion where  there  should  be  only  the  dignity  of  law, 
and  that  creates  courts  which  are  inclined  to  rule  against 
the  defendants,  and  to  extort  money  from  all  from 
whom  it  can  be  got.  These  justices  are  named  by  the 
judges  of  record  of  the  county,  and  the  list  is  sent  to 
the  Legislature  for  approval  and  appointment.  From 
the  lot  the  police-magistrates  are  selected  by  the  May- 
or. There  are  ten  police-courts  and  twelve  magistrates, 
and  the  reason  there  are  two  more  judges  than  courts 
lets  in  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  situation.  There  are 
two  very  busy  courts,  and  in  order  to  share  their  busi- 
ness it  became  the  custom  for  other  judges  than  those 

42 


appointed  by  the  Mayor  to  hire  apartments  next  door 
to  these  courts,  and  in  them  to  hold  courts  of  their  own. 
These  piratical  justices  inspired  the  lawyers  and  prison- 
ers appearing  before  the  regular  courts  to  demand  a 
change  of  venue  and  bring  their  causes  next  door,  the 
incentive  being  a  promise  of  more  satisfactory  treat- 
ment than  the  regular  courts  would  be  likely  to  vouch- 
safe— lighter  fines,  for  instance,  or  other  perversions  of 
justice.  It  became,  and  it  remains  to-day,  a  custom  for 
these  motions  for  a  change  of  venue  to  be  offered  in 
the  most  commonplace  and  perfunctory  manner,  the 
magistrates  administering  the  oath,  and  the  others  sol- 
emnly swearing  that  they  ask  a  change  of  venue  be- 
cause they  are  of  the  opinion  that  they  cannot  get  jus- 
tice in  the  court  in  question.  To  break  this  custom  at 
its  strongest  points  the  Mayor  has  appointed  additional 
magistrates  for  the  principal  police-courts,  and  they  hold 
court  in  rooms  adjoining  those  of  their  associates,  so 
that  those  who  insist  upon  a  change  of  venue  are  taken 
one  door  away  to  obtain  the  same  quality  of  justice 
which  they  would  have  obtained  in  the  first  court. 
The  justices  who  may  be  called  the  Mayor's  magistrates 
are  salaried.  The  busy  ones  get  $5000  a  year,  the  oth- 
ers less. 

The  saloon  license  system  is  another  village  develop- 
ment. The  regular  fee  is  $500,  and  there  are  only  5000 
licenses,  but  any  man  of  what  is  called  "  good  charac- 
ter" may  get  a  license  on  his  own  application,  and  the 
license  is  then  issued  to  the  person.  He  may  sell  his 
liquors  anywhere  that  he  pleases  within  the  city  limits. 
The  law  declares  that  the  drinking -saloons  shall  be 
closed  at  midnight.  It  has  proved  extremely  difficult 
to  enforce  this  ordinance,  but  the  present  Mayor  has 

43 


been  making  a  brave  battle  towards  that  end.  He  is  of 
those  who  believe  that  all  evils  which  seem  either  nec- 
essary or  ineradicable  should  be  regulated,  and  his  idea 
was  to  enforce  the  law  for  closing  the  saloons,  and  to 
issue  licenses  to  sell  liquor  in  the  restaurants  which 
keep  open  all  night,  the  drinks  to  be  sold  only  with 
food.  He  found,  what  was  no  new  discovery,  that  the 
reform  was  loudly  opposed  by  the  worst  element  in  the 
business,  who  said  that  they  could  and  did  sell  liquor  in 
their  restaurants,  anyway,  and  that  there  was  no  need 
for  licenses.  He  also  found  that  the  ultra-temperance 
folk  took  sides  with  these  defiers  of  order  by  opposing 
the  reform  on  the  usual  ground  that  licensing  liquor- 
selling  was  recognizing  and  authorizing  the  evil.  As 
late  as  the  end  of  last  autumn  the  Mayor  was  manfully 
holding  to  his  determination  to  enforce  the  midnight 
closing  law,  and  it  was  said  by  all  with  whom  I  spoke 
that  it  was  extremely  difficult  to  obtain  even  a  glass  of 
beer  after  twelve  o'clock,  and  that  no  saloons  displayed 
lights  or  open  doors  after  hours. 

He  was  able  to  enforce  his  orders  and  perform  this 
function  of  his  office  for  a  reason  that  points  a  moral 
for  every  student  of  the  subject  to  remember.  He 
holds  the  power  to  dismiss  those  who  disobey  him.  He 
promised  to  discharge  any  policeman  upon  whose  post 
a  drink  was  sold  or  a  saloon  was  kept  open  after  hours. 
He  could  discharge  every  policeman,  from  the  Chief 
down,  and  they  all  knew  it.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  almost  similar  authority  is  vested  in  the  police 
magistrates  in  the  most  progressive  English  cities.  The 
result  is  wholesome  everywhere. 

Some  past  work  of  the  Chicago  police  has  made  the 
force  famous.  The  World's  Fair  commissioners  who 

44 


went  abroad  to  urge  foreign  participation  in  the  Exposi- 
tion found  their  way  paved  before  them  by  the  good 
opinion  of  Chicago  that  had  been  aroused  by  her  treat- 
ment of  the  anarchists.  But  the  force  has  deteriorated. 
It  looks  as  if  it  had  run  down  at  the  heels,  and  needed 
a  soldier  in  command  to  discipline  it  and  develop  among 
its  members  an  esprit  de  corps.  The  almost  all-powerful 
Mayor  recognizes  this,  and  has  appointed  Major  R.  W. 
McClaughry  to  the  chieftaincy  on  account  of  that  gen- 
tleman's reputation  for  administrative  ability  and  for 
disciplinary  force.  As  warden  of  Joliet  (Illinois)  Peni- 
tentiary, and  later  of  a  Reformatory  at  Huntingdon, 
Pennsylvania,  he  caused  these  qualities  to  attract  atten- 
tion. The  Chicago  police  force  had  become  a  hospital 
for  the  political  toughs  of  the  city,  and  any  man  could 
join  it  provided  only  that  he  had  "  inflooence."  He 
might  be  a  man  just  out  of  State-prison,  or  only  thirty 
days  in  America,  but  if  he  was  the  protege  of  a  politician 
he  was  made  a  policeman.  There  were  regulations  as  to 
fitness,  both  mental,  moral,  and  physical,  but  they  were 
disregarded.  The  plan  for  rehabilitating  the  force  is  an 
adaptation  of  Civil  Service  methods.  The  men  are  cross- 
questioned  like  school-boys  at  a  quarterly  examination. 
Their  moral  character  is  looked  into  less  sharply  than 
their  ability  to  comprehend  the  true  nature  of  a  police- 
man's duties  and  relation  to  the  people.  Politics  are  not 
shown  the  door.  The  wards  and  "heelers"  of  the  politi- 
cians are  the  candidates  as  before,  but  after  a  man  is  ad- 
mitted to  be  examined  it  is  asserted  that  his  political 
backing  ceases  to  affect  his  fate.  He  must  obtain  a 
grade  of  seventy  in  a  possible  one  hundred,  and  when 
twelve  candidates  have  passed  the  examination,  if  only 
six  are  needed,  the  best  six  are  taken. 

*  45 


But  even  before  this  reform  began,  the  Western  habit 
of  experimenting  with  new  ideas  had  led  to  the  intro- 
duction of  features  of  police  service  which  we  in  New 
York  could  have  copied  with  advantage,  and  must  copy 
sooner  or  later.  On  that  corner  of  Clark  Street  where 
the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  stands,  one  day  towards  the 
middle  of  last  October,  I  saw  a  policeman  try  to  arrest 
a  maniacal  victim  of  delirium  tremens.  It  was  at  six 
o'clock,  and  the  streets  were  crowded.  Had  the  case 
occurred  in  New  York,  our  public  would  have  witnessed 
a  brutal  and  sickening  "  clubbing  match,"  for  in  no  other 
way  than  by  stunning  the  man  could  one  of  our  officers 
have  handled  him.  If  the  policeman  would  have  pre- 
ferred help,  he  would  have  beaten  the  sidewalk  with  his 
club  and  waited,  while  the  maniac  fought  like  a  tiger, 
until  another  policeman  arrived.  Ringing  a  club  on  a 
pavement  is  better  than  springing  a  rattle,  as  our  police 
did  a  century  ago — but  that  is  not  saying  much  in  its 
favor.  However,  this  was  in  Chicago. 

There  they  have  discovered  the  advantages  of  a  per- 
fected electrical  system  of  communication  between  the 
police-stations  and  the  patrolmen  on  duty.  In  this  case 
the  policeman  stepped  to  one  of  those  patrol-boxes  that 
are  so  numerous  as  to  seem  always  at  hand,  and  flashed 
a  signal  to  the  nearest  station  for  help.  In  a  jiffy  a 
wagon-load  of  policemen  dashed  up  to  the  spot,  the  men 
leaped  out,  the  rum-crazed  offender  was  bundled  into  the 
wagon,  and  it  was  driven  back  to  the  station.  A  neater, 
cleaner,  more  admirable  piece  of  police  work  I  never 
saw  ;  but  the  frequent  sight  of  these  wagons  flying 
through  the  streets  assured  me  that  such  work,  in  such 
cases,  is  the  rule  with  that  force. 

After  the  Mayor  has  appointed  his  heads  of  depart- 

46 


MAKING   ONE   OF  THE  1UG   FIGURES   FOR   ELECTRICITY   BUILDING 


ments  (and  all  the  8000  or  9000  "feet,"  if  he  chooses), 
he  divides  his  further  powers  with  the  Common  Coun- 
cil, which  has  been  but  little  shorn  of  its  inherited  func- 
tions. Its  committees  follow  the  more  important  di- 
visions of  the  government,  and  one  of  them,  the  finance 
committee,  acting  like  New  York's  Board  of  Estimate 
and  Apportionment,  determines  the  cost  of  each  year's 
undertakings.  The  Council  is  a  very  large  body,  and 
contains  two  members  from  each  of  the  thirty -four 
wards  of  the  city,  one  being  elected  from  each  ward 
every  year.  They  are  paid  on  the  per  diem  plan  for 
actual  service,  and,  like  almost  all  the  officers  of  the 
government,  are  moderately  recompensed.  The  city  has 
experimented  with  bureaus  headed  by  commissions  and 
with  intrusting  the  patronage  to  the  Common  Council. 
It  has  now  had  for  years  what  is  popularly  known  as 
"  one-man  power."  It  is  often  said  that  this  is  whatever 
the  one  man  proves  himself,  but  the  experience  of  the 
present  time  in  Chicago  is  that  if  the  Mayor  were  a  saint, 
so  long  as  the  spoils  system  obtains,  he  would  find  it  dif- 
ficult to  succeed  in  dispensing  the  patronage  and  attend- 
ing to  his  duties,  at  least  during  the  first  year  of  his  two- 
year  term. 

But  there  are  other  municipal  corporations  in  Chicago 
with  which  the  Mayor  has  nothing  to  do.  They  are  the 
park  boards.  It  is  a  strange  thing  about  Chicago  that 
those  monuments  of  her  public  spirit,  enterprise,  and 
taste,  which  are  at  once  her  glory  and  her  pride  are  out 
of  the  control  of  her  city  government.  It  is  to  the  man- 
agement of  them  that  I  have  referred  as  exemplifying  the 
very  best  method  of  the  administration  of  local  affairs. 
They  do  not  do  this  in  their  origin  because  they  are  the 
creatures  of  either  the  courts  or  the  State  government, 

47 


whereas  to  be  as  they  should  they  must  be  the  products 
of  popular  and  home  rule.  But  in  the  methods  and 
work  of  the  boards  is  seen  that  which  produces  the  best 
government.  There  seem  to  be  no  "  politics "  about 
them.  They  appear  to  be  doing  business  on  business 
principles.  They  have  produced  one  of  the  notable  park 
systems  of  the  world  by  methods  so  wise  and  economi- 
cal that  the  people  have  witnessed  the  spectacle  of  a 
wondrous  and  beautiful  park  development  without  feel- 
ing the  tax  by  which  the  cost  has  been  met.  The  park 
commissioners  serve  without  pay  and  in  the  belief  that 
their  duties  bring  honor  with  them.  They  are  inspired 
to  give  the  public  their  best  service  by  the  conscious- 
ness that  when  the  plans  for  the  pleasure-grounds  have 
been  executed,  it  will  be  worth  as  much  as  a  monument 
to  any  man  to  have  been  concerned  in  the  work. 

Even  in  the  City  Hall  and  among  the  politicians,  stu- 
dents of  the  city  government  are  referred  to  the  parks  as 
examples  of  the  best  public  work  that  has  been  performed 
in  Chicago.  And  in  the  City  Hall  I  was  told  that  the 
reason  for  this  is  that  the  Park  Commissioners  are  un- 
hampered by  political  obligations. 

There  are  three  of  these  corporations — the  South 
Park,  the  Lincoln  Park,  and  the  West  Park  commission- 
ers, and  they  not  only  are  independent  of  the  city  gov- 
ernment, but  they  have  jurisdiction  over  all  the  parkways 
and  boulevards,  at  least  one  of  which  reaches  to  the  very 
heart  of  the  business  quarter  in  the  thick  of  the  town. 
They  enact  their  own  ordinances,  and  maintain  police  to 
enforce  them.  They  build,  repair,  clean,  and  police  the 
parks  and  boulevards  in  their  charge  ;  and  have  been,  by 
the  courts,  declared  to  be  quasi-municipal  corporations 
in  themselves.  Each  commission  is  maintained  by  a  di- 

48 


MODEL   FOR   LIVE-STOCK   ENTRANCE 


rect  tax  upon  the  district  or  division  of  the  city  which  it 
benefits. 

It  will  not  be  profitable  to  study  all  the  commissions: 
one  does  not  differ  materially  from  another.  The  South 
Side  Commission,  headed  by  President  William  Best,  con- 
sists of  five  members,  who  are  appointed  for  five-year 
terms  by  the  judges  of  the  Circuit  Court.  When  the 
majority  of  the  judges  are  Democrats,  they  appoint  Dem- 
ocrats ;  and  Republican  majorities  appoint  Republican 
commissioners;  but  beyond  that  point  I  am  assured  that 
politics  cut  no  figure  in  the  case.  At  present  there  are 
three  Democrats  and  two  Republicans  on  the  board. 
One  member  is  a  real-estate  dealer,  one  is  vice-president 
of  the  stock-yards,  one  is  a  tobacco  merchant,  one  is  a 
coal-dealer,  and  one  is  an  editor.  All  are  well-to-do  and 
middle-aged  men.  One  has  served  fifteen  years,  another 
twelve  years,  and  another  ten  years.  Mr.  H.  W.  Harmon, 
the  secretary,  has  held  the  place  nineteen  years ;  and 
Mr.  Foster,  the  superintendent,  has  filled  that  position 
seventeen  years. 

This  commission  performed  its  functions  for  three 
towns  originally — South  Chicago,  Hyde  Park,  and  Lake. 
They  now  comprise  a  part  of  the  city.  They  are  assessed 
for  $300,000  annually,  South  Chicago  paying  80  per  cent., 
and  the  other  towns  10  per  cent.  each.  In  addition,  a 
tax  of  one  mill  is  levied  on  the  taxable  valuation  of  the 
district,  because  the  fixed  sum  of  $300,000  proved  in- 
sufficient. The  additional  tax  is  to  be  imposed  as  long 
as  the  commission  has  any  bonds  outstanding.  The 
weight  of  the  total  tax  upon  the  community  is  2f  mills, 
and  is  presumably  an  unfelt  burden.  For  this  the  com- 
mission maintains  Michigan  Avenue,  the  boulevard  that 
leads  into  the  heart  of  the  city;  Drexel  Boulevard,  mod- 

49 


elled  after  one  of  the  noblest  avenues  in  Paris ;  the  Grand 
Boulevard,  a  splendid  thoroughfare ;  Washington  Park, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  grand  and  beautiful  breathing- 
spots  in  the  city ;  Jackson  Park,  where  the  Columbian 
Exposition  is  to  be  held  ;  and  many  other  boulevards 
and  park  extensions.  Lakes,  notable  floral  collections, 
boats,  restaurants,  picnic  and  play  grounds,  park  phae- 
tons, a  zoological  collection,  sprinkling-carts,  police,  labor- 
ers, a  nursery  for  trees,  and  a  score  of  other  sources  of 
expense  or  attractions  are  thus  provided  for.  The  com- 
mission employs  a  force  that  is  mainly  composed  of 
Swedes  and  Germans.  The  same  men  are  retained  year 
after  year.  They  are  skilled  in  their  several  lines  of 
work ;  they  own  their  little  homes,  and  feel  secure  in 
their  places ;  they  are  not  told  how  to  vote,  nor  are  they 
watched  at  the  polls.  The  work  of  the  commission  em- 
braces several  sources  of  income,  but  no  effort  is  made 
to  force  profits  out  of  the  conveniences  and  playthings 
provided  for  the  people. 

Lincoln  Park  is  the  one  that  all  visitors  to  Chicago 
are  certain  to  be  advised  to  see.  It  is  only  250  acres  in 
extent,  but  it  lies  along  the  curving  shore  of  Lake  Mich- 
igan, a  fringe  of  sward  and  shade  beside  a  sheet  of  tur- 
quoise. We  in  New  York  waited  until  we  were  200 
years  old  before  we  built  such  parks.  Chicago  waited 
only  forty  years.  Already  statues,  fountains,  and  a  con- 
servatory are  ornaments  piled  on  ornament  in  Lincoln 
Park.  A  lake  a  mile  long  rs  being  added  for  aquatic 
sports,  and  the  noble  Lake  Shore  Drive,  which  is  a  part 
of  the  park,  is  to  be  faced  with  a  paved  beach  and  a 
sea-wall,  and  is  to  connect  with  the  drive  to  Fort  Sheri- 
dan, distant  twenty- five  miles  northward  on  the  lake 
front.  There  are  five  commissioners  in  charge  of  this 

50 


park  and  the  boulevarded  streets  that  approach  it. 
They  are  appointed  by  the  Governor  of  Illinois,  with 
the  approval  of  the  Senate,  and  serve  five  years.  Three 
are  Democrats  and  two  are  Republicans,  but  their  em- 
ployes are  chosen  for  fitness  as  workmen,  and  the  trust 
is  managed  practically  and  economically. 

William  C.  Goudy,  the  president,  was  counsel  to  the 
commission  for  fifteen  years  before  he  was  chosen  presi- 
dent. General  Joseph  Stockton  has  been  a  commissioner 
twenty-two  years,  and  E.  S.  Taylor  has  been  the  secre- 
tary since  the  organization  of  the  board  in  1869.  The 
commission  bought  its  land  for  only  $900,000,  and  in 
five  years  will  have  extinguished  that  debt.  Now  it  is 
borrowing  $500,000  to  meet  the  cost  of  reclaiming  from 
the  lake  land  that  will  be  worth  millions  as  soon  as  it  is 
made.  The  tax  rate  last  year  was  8  mills  on  the  low 
assessed  valuation  that  prevails  in  Chicago.  During  the 
twenty-two  years  of  existence  of  the  commission  there 
never  has  been  the  slightest  taint  or  suspicion  of  job- 
bery or  impropriety  of  any  sort  in  its  relation  to  its 
work,  its  employes,  or  the  people. 

It  is  true  that  these  park  boards  are  the  products  of 
the  organization  of  Cook  County,  which  extends  around 
and  beyond  Chicago.  The  absurd  justices  of  the  peace 
are  the  old  village  squires  of  the  county  system  also. 
Though  there  are  only  about  100,000  persons  in  the 
county  outside  the  city,  the  Cook  County  Board  of 
Commissioners  exercises  an  authority  that  is  perfectly 
independent  of  the  City  Council.  The  parks  are  there- 
fore managed  by  the  State,  and  not  the  city,  and  this  is 
cause  for  offence  to  all  who  hold  that  perfected  city 
government  must  be  complete  self-government.  The 
argument  is  too  solid  to  be  broken  down  by  any  excep- 

51 


tion,  and  yet  these  commissions  are  singular  in  present- 
ing the  spectacle  of  State  organizations  freed  from  poli- 
tics in  a  city  where  the  local  organization  is  poisoned  to 
the  core  with  partisan  allegiance  and  spoils-grabbing. 
But  beyond  that  is  the  renewed  proof  that  local  gov- 
ernment succeeds  best  when  administered  by  non-poli- 
ticians working  in  no  interest  but  that  of  the  public. 

That  is  what  the  Chicago  park  managers  newly  dem- 
onstrate. Call  them  county  officers,  as  they  are,  yet 
they  are  of  and  for  Chicago.  They  are  Chicago  busi- 
ness men,  and  they  have  been  induced  to  give  up  what 
time  they  can  spare  from  private  business  because  they 
feel  it  a  distinction  and  an  honor  to  be  intrusted  with 
the  execution  of  what  every  man  in  Chicago  thinks  is  to 
become  the  greatest  and  most  beautiful  park  system  in 
the  world.  They  are  anxious  to  prove  that  no  mistake 
was  made  in  choosing  them  as  men  of  business  ability. 
The  instant  politicians  are  chosen  they  begin  to  pay  off 
their  debts  to  the  party  with  which  they  have  bargained 
for  a  living.  They  pay  their  debts  with  the  valuables 
that  belong  to  the  people.  Their  constant  thoughts 
and  best  efforts  are  put  forth  to  strengthen  their  party 
and  to  please  its  managers.  The  non-politician  in  office 
has  no  one  to  please  but  the  public. 

52 


CHAPTER  IV 
CUPID'S  WINDOW   IN  THE  CITY 

IN  many  States  and  cities  the  banns  are  now  pub- 
lished in  the  newspapers  in  the  form  of  lists  of  persons 
who  have  taken  out  licenses  to  marry.  Seeing  these 
lists,  so  strange  to  a  New-Yorker,  in  the  Chicago  dailies 
every  morning  led  me  to  investigate  the  manner  in 
which  the  happy  lovers  out  West  make  known  their 
connubial  intentions.  I  was  greatly  helped  to  make  the 
investigation  by  running  across  a  few  interesting  re- 
marks upon  the  subject  in  a  Chicago  guide-book.  There 
it  was  stated  that  14,200  licenses  were  issued  in  1890. 
In  nearly  700  cases  the  consent  of  parents  was  neces- 
sary, so  young  were  the  brides  or  grooms.  The  young- 
est maiden  was  fifteen — an  Italian,  in  all  probability — 
and  the  youngest  boy  was  eighteen.  The  oldest  woman 
was  fifty-nine,  but  there  was  a  bridegroom  of  seventy- 
one  years,  who  had  been  married  twice  before.  One 
man  of  sixty-five  years  married  a  woman  twenty-two 
years  old,  and  more  than  a  score  of  men  remarried  wives 
from  whom  they  had  been  divorced. 

It  will  be  seen  that  there  was  much  of  promise  in  the 
distant  view  that  was  thus  obtained  of  the  marriage- 
license  bureau.  I  found  it  to  be  one  of  many  windows 
in  the  County  Clerk's  office — a  very  commonplace-look- 

53 


ing  window  in  front  of  a  long  tall  desk,  and  bearing  the 
legend,  "  Marriage  Licenses  and  Naturalization."  A 
young  German  was  standing  before  the  window,  and 
several  men  and  women  stood  behind  him,  as  if  waiting 
their  turns  to  be  cross-examined  by  the  sprightly,  flash- 
ing-eyed, black-haired  man  who  faced  the  window  from 
the  other  side,  and  made  his  pen  fly  across  the  papers 
before  him  as  if  he  expected  this  year's  14,000  lovers  to 
appear  before  him  simultaneously  that  afternoon.  I 
was  invited  to  join  him  behind  the  counter ;  and  when 
I  explained  that  we  New-Yorkers  do  not  understand 
the  marriage-license  ceremony,  he  flung  open  a  drawer, 
whipped  out  a  green  -  covered  book  that  looked  like  a 
novel,  slammed  the  drawer  shut,  and  said:  "I  have 
written  a  book  about  it.  That  will  tell  you  everything." 
Then  he  put  a  question  in  German  to  the  suitor  for  a 
license  before  him,  obtained  a  "  Ja,  Meinherr"  in  reply, 
and  fell  to  writing  again,  quite  as  if  he  had  another 
book  in  hand  and  the  printer  was  crying  for  "  copy." 

The  book  which  he  gave  me  was  entitled  From  the 
Marriage  License  Window,  by  M.  Salmonson,  ex -Mar- 
riage License  Deputy  for  Cook  County,  Illinois.  The 
work  looked  as  if  it  might  prove  very  entertaining,  but, 
of  course,  the  mere  glance  it  got  could  reveal  nothing 
so  novel  and  peculiar  as  the  fact  that  the  clerk  had 
written  it.  We  have  many  sorts  of  clerks  in  public 
offices  in  New  York  city,  but  I  cannot  honestly  say  that 
there  are  many  who  reveal  a  fondness  for  exploiting  the 
romantic  sides  of  their  work  in  book  form,  or  many  who 
even  read  books.  Mr.  Salmonson  finished  with  the  man 
in  hand,  and  immediately  addressed  the  next  comer  in 
Swedish. 

"How  many  languages  do  you  speak?"  I  inquired. 

54 


THE   BRITISH   BUILDING 


"  I  speak  Scandinavian,  French,  German,  and  English," 
said  he.  "  That  is  to  say,  I  understand  the  literatures 
of  those  countries,  besides  speaking  their  tongues.  I 
get  along  with  the  Poles  and  Bohemians,  but  though  I 
speak  their  languages,  I  am  not  familiar  with  their  liter- 
ature— an  indispensable  requirement  in  the  study  of  a 
people." 

Unfortunately  this  very  uncommon  sort  of  an  official 
was  too  busy  to  talk  much  ;  and,  worse  still  for  the  fort- 
une of  the  reader,  what  conversation  we  did  have,  was 
upon  matters  not  germane  to  the  subject  of  licenses. 
It  is  impossible,  therefore,  to  estimate  the  loss  that  was 
thus  occasioned.  His  second  client,  the  Swede,  was  a 
young  man  under  twenty-one,  who  had  to  fetch  his 
father  along  with  him  to  give  his  consent  to  the  pro- 
posed marriage.  "I  am  going  to  be  twenty -one," 
was  all  that  he  vouchsafed  on  the  delicate  point  of  his 
age.  But  the  non- attendant  bride,  of  whom  Mr.  Sal- 
monson  always  spoke  as  "  the  lady,"  was  eighteen  years 
old,  so  that  her  part  in  the  procedure  offered  no  ob- 
stacle. 

All  the  time  that  Mr.  Salmonson  was  putting  ques- 
tions to  the  applicants  he  was  writing  down  their  an- 
swers in  the  vacant  spaces  in  blanks  which  read  as 
follows : 


No. 
STATE  OF  ILLINOIS, 

COOK  COUNTY. 

of , in  the 

County  of and  State  of being  duly 

sworn,  deposes  and  says,  that of 

in  the  County  of and  State  of 

is  of  the  age  of years,  and  that of 

in  the  County  of and  State  of , ,,,. 

F  55 


is  of  the  age  of years,  and  that  said  above-named  persons  are  single 

and  unmarried,  and  may  lawfully  contract  and  be  joined  in  marriage. 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me,  this 
day  of A.D.  18 

Clerk  of  the  County  Court.     By Deputy. 


These  blanks  were  for  official  retention,  to  be  filed 
away  as  public  records.  When  one  of  these  forms  was 
filled  out,  the  clerk  held  it  up  before  him  and  took  a 
much  larger  printed  form  from  a  pile  in  front  of  him, 
upon  which  to  copy  a  part  of  the  record  he  had  entered 
upon  the  smaller  sheet.  The  larger  blank  was  to  be 
given  to  the  applicant,  to  be  taken  home  by  him  or  her. 
It  was  completed  by  a  formula  which  the  clergyman  or 
magistrate  who  afterwards  marries  the  couple  is  obliged 
to  fill  in  and  sign.  This  person  then  returns  the  whole 
sheet  to  the  authorities,  and  bestqws  upon  the  newly- 
wedded  pair  a  regular  marriage  certificate.  The  little 
blank  which  the  clerk  keeps  is  as  plain  as  pie-crust,  and 
is  very  cheaply  gotten  up  ;  but  the  other  is  a  formidable 
and  artistic -looking  document,  having  a  fancy  border 
and  much  brave  and  ornamental  type,  as  befits  a  paper 
which  an  ardent  and  tender  suitor  is  to  bear  away  to 
the  idol  of  his  affections,  in  witness  of  his  earnestness 
and  enterprise.  When  she  receives  such  a  testimonial 
she  reads  these  words  : 

"  To  any  person  legally  authorized  to  solemnize  mar- 
riage, greeting:  Marriage  may  be  celebrated  between 
Mr.  —  — ,  of  -  — ,  in  such  a  county  and  such  a  State,  of 
the  age  of  —  -  years,  and  M—  — ,  in  such  a  county 
and  State,  of  the  age  of-  -years.  Witness:  Henry 
Wulff,  Clerk  of  the  County  Court  of  said  Cook  County, 
etc.,  etc."  Then  follows  the  certification  that  the  mar- 

66 


THE   BUILDING   FROM    WOODED   ISLAND 


riage  was  celebrated  by  some  one  who  fills  out  the  rest 
of  the  form. 

The  happy  swain  who  is  to  receive  such  a  paper  does 
not  do  so  until  he  has  stepped  to  the  next  window, 
labelled  "Cashier,"  where  he  is  to  pay  $1.50,  the  fee 
for  the  service.  Once  in  a  while,  Mr.  Salmonson  says, 
there  happens  along  a  man  who  does  not  know  that 
there  is  anything  to  pay,  and  who  is  not  able  to  meet  the 
charge,  although  he  feels  otherwise  able  to  marry.  In 
such  a  case  the  attaches  of  the  office  are  very  apt  to  raise 
the  sum  among  themselves  and  pay  it  to  the  county, 
because  every  license  is  numbered,  and  there  must  be 
found  in  the  safe  as  many  shillings  as  six  times  the 
number  of  licenses  that  have  been  issued  each  day.  Of 
course  it  is  a  rare  occurrence  for  a  man  to  come  unpre- 
pared to  pay  the  fee.  The  far  commoner  cases  are  those 
where  the  happy  applicants  are  moved  to  throw  out  their 
money  lightly,  with  a  cigar  all  around  for  the  clerks,  and 
an  invitation  to  the  chief  clerk  to  "come  out  and  smile." 
This  literary  official  lays  down  the  rule  that  cigars  are 
always  accepted,  even  when  the  recipient  does  not  smoke, 
and  that  there  is  never  time  for  the  other  form  of  re- 
freshment. 

It  was  on  a  Friday  that  I  visited  the  marriage-license 
window,  and  I  was  informed  that  any  other  day  of  the 
week  except  Sunday  would  have  been  better,  because 
those  who  are  even  a  very  little  superstitious  do  not 
visit  the  window  on  that  much -slandered  day.  Very 
superstitious  persons  go  much  further  than  that,  for  one 
couple,  upon  hearing  a  band  pass  the  window  playing  a 
funeral  march  at  the  head  of  a  procession,  refused  to  take 
out  the  license  until  another  day.  And  Mr.  Salmonson 
says  that  on  one  occasion  a  young  man  inquired  whether 

57 


he  thought  it  would  rain  before  night.  The  sky  looked 
threatening,  and  the  clerk  said  he  thought  rain  might 
fall. 

"  Then  I  will  come  on  another  day,"  said  the  timid 
applicant.  "  It  would  be  bad  luck  if  it  rained  on  the 
day  I  get  my  license." 

I  could  not  help  wrondering  what  must  be  the  scene 
on  such  unusually  busy  days  as  Saturdays  or  the  days 
preceding  national  festivals,  for  though  it  was  Friday, 
there  was  no  pause  in  the  business  at  the  window.  As 
quickly  as  one  man  got  his  permit,  another  took  his 
place.  Only  two  women  came  with  their  prospective 
husbands.  There  is  no  need  for  any  of  the  fair  sex  to 
go  to  the  window,  and,  as  a  rule,  it  is  only  the  humbler 
and  more  ignorant  ones  who  do  so,  conceiving  it  to  be 
a  necessity. 

This  fact  led  to  a  very  peculiar  and  unlooked-for  busi- 
ness that  was  for  a  time  regularly  carried  on  close  before 
the  window.  The  parties  in  or  partners  to  this  specula- 
tion were  a  justice  of  the  peace  and  a  clergyman,  who 
were  daily  frequenters  of  this  branch  altar  of  Hymen 
for  purposes  of  lawful  but  selfish  gain.  They  man- 
aged to  clear  $50  a  week  each,  it  was  said.  Knowing 
full  well  that  only  the  simplest  folk,  or  those  most  ig- 
norant of  the  law,  would  come  in  couples  where  only 
the  man  was  required  to  attend,  this  ingenious  pair  saw 
a  chance  to  intrude  upon  such  simplicity  with  offers  to 
marry  the  candidates  out  of  hand,  as  it  were.  The  jus- 
tice of  the  peace  was  an  Irish-American,  and  the  clergy- 
man was  a  German  with  a  smattering  of  several  Euro- 
pean tongues.  The  justice  always  broke  the  ice.  He 
met  each  couple  with  a  suggestion  that  he  was  able  to 
perform  a  civil  marriage.  He  offered  weighty  argu- 

58 


merits  against  delay  where  both  parties  had  taken  a  holi- 
day, and  might  as  well  hasten  the  end  and  aim  of  all  true 
lovers.  Frequently  his  offer  was  refused  on  religious 
grounds ;  the  couple  were  agreed  to  be  married  by  a 
minister.  Very  well,  then,  said  the  magistrate,  there 
chances  to  be  here  at  this  moment  my  friend  the  Rever- 
end So-and-So.  More  than  that,  the  obliging  magistrate 
doubted  not  that  he  could  prevail  upon  the  preacher  to 
delay  his  business  long  enough  to  turn  two  happy  hearts 
into  a  blissful  one.  Then  came  the  busy  minister  upon 
the  scene,  "  and,"  said  my  informant,  "  as  long  as  this  pair 
of  brokers  worked  together  few  couples  escaped  them." 
It  was  said  that  some  others  of  this  ilk  were  even  then 
practising  their  wiles  upon  the  too  susceptible  fractions 
of  the  public  that  wandered  into  the  office,  and  I  even 
had  one  of  the  so-called  brokers  pointed  out  to  me  ;  but 
though  I  watched  him  a  while  (hoping  to  witness  a  wed- 
ding, yet  being  disappointed),  I  cannot  declare  that  the 
"  business  "  now  goes  on. 

It  would  have  been  wonderful  had  there  occurred 
such  another  wedding  as  one  which  Mr.  Salmonson  tells 
of  having  witnessed.  In  that  case  the  bride,  a  negro 
girl,  took  off  her  hat  and  collar,  and  then  her  dress,  and 
stood  revealing  to  the  at  first  bewildered  on-lookers  a 
complete  wedding-gown  of  white,  to  which  she  added, 
from  a  parcel  she  had  carried,  an  artificial  orange  wreath 
to  make  the  costume  complete.  In  his  book  he  tells  of 
many  and  many  an  odd  observation  and  experience.  In 
taking  an  oath  to  the  truth  of  what  they  have  said,  as 
all  must  do,  it  is  noticed  that  many  laborers  from  Prot- 
estant Europe  raise  three  fingers,  to  represent  the  Trini- 
ty, instead  of  one  hand  as  we  do ;  but  one  man,  on  be- 
ing asked  to  raise  his  hand,  lifted  both  arms  above  his 

59 


head.  He  was  a  professional  criminal,  accustomed  to 
being  searched  by  officers  of  the  law.  Young  Americans 
are  usually  in  a  hurry ;  they  want  to  know  if  they  can 
be  attended  to  "right  away."  They  spoil  blank  after 
blank  in  a  vain  endeavor  to  sign  their  full  names,  and 
they  explain  that  for  years  they  have  abbreviated  their 
signatures  in  the  rush  of  business  until  their  hands  re- 
fuse to  break  the  old  habit.  One  man  is  said  to  have 
signed  himself  "  Smith  &  Co." 

The  Slavs  and  the  French  Canadians  are  the  most 
illiterate  applicants  at  the  window.  Many  seem  to  have 
had  no  schooling.  Irishmen  who  cannot  write  are 
ashamed  of  the  fact.  Some  appear  with  their  right 
hands  bandaged,  while  others  give  the  impression  of 
having  practised  the  art  of  printing  merely  the  letters 
of  their  names  and  no  others.  Many  of  the  Hebrews 
can  only  write  their  names  in  Hebrew  characters.  They 
are  the  most  deferential  applicants.  Oftentimes  they 
knock  at  the  open  door,  and  being  bidden  to  enter,  stand 
at  a  distance  uncovered.  They  come  direct  from  the 
synagogues  dressed  in  their  best,  with  their  sweethearts 
beside  them.  Those  who  are  most  strict  will  not  touch 
pen  and  ink  on  Saturday,  though  they  come  on  that  day. 
Irishmen  bring  their  friends,  who  are  apt  to  tease  them, 
calling  them  "victims,"  and  saying  that  one  stroke  of 
the  pen  will  destroy  their  liberty.  The  Irish  are  the 
ones  who  most  frequently  offer  to  treat  the  clerk. 

When  a  man  strides  up  and  produces  his  discharge 
from  the  army  and  a  double  set  of  certificates  of  birth 
and  vaccination,  the  clerk  says  he  knows  he  is  dealing 
with  a  German,  who  will  be  surprised  to  learn  that  a 
man  may  marry  in  America  without  being  vaccinated. 
The  Germans  are  apt  to  bring  their  brides  and  a  group 

60 


A  SCULPTOR'S  STUDIO 


of  friends,  who.  laugh  and  jest  all  the  time  that  the  per- 
mit is  being  drawn  up.  The  young  Bohemian  man  and 
his  male  friends  come  freshly  barbered  and  with  white 
artificial  flowers  in  their  coat  lapels.  When  Italians 
come,  the  families  of  both  parties  to  the  match  are  apt 
to  be  with  them  in  a  swarm.  The  women  are  gay  with 
bright  colors,  and  the  bride's  mother,  while  giving  con- 
sent for  her  sixteen-year-old  daughter  to  marry,  explains 
that  she  was  still  younger  when  she  was  married.  The 
Scandinavian  men  marry  their  own  kind,  but  the  girls 
and  women  are  more  liberal.  There  are  Swedes  whose 
religious  zeal  will  not  permit  them  either  to  take  an  oath 
or  to  "affirm,"  and  such  ones  go  to  distant  States,  where 
permits  are  not  required,  when  they  wish  to  get  married. 
It  was  easy  to  see  in  one  morning's  visit  that  a  mar- 
riage-license window  is  a  queer  place,  and  one  at  which 
human  nature  is  bared  to  official  inspection  as  it  seldom 
is  in  any  other  government  office.  Hither  come  the  gos- 
sips to  ask  whether  certain  couples  whose  names  were 
published  the  other  day  have  yet  got  married ;  to  ask 
what  sort  of  a  looking  man  it  was  who  took  out  a  license 
to  wed  with  Susie  Todd — was  he  tall  and  light  or  stout 
and  dark?  And  hither  come  angry  mothers  to  say  that 
no  permit  should  have  been  given  for  their  daughters, 
who  are  not  so  old  as  was  said.  They  ask  how  the  law 
can  be  invoked  to  punish  the  offending  bridegrooms. 
But  there  are  other  brides  who  appear  to  be  forty  or 
thirty,  yet  declare  themselves  thirty  or  twenty.  Back 
comes  a  man  to  ask  if  his  permit  number  cannot  be 
changed,  because  he  wants  to  buy  a  lottery-ticket  of  the 
same  number  as  his  wedding  license,  and  cannot  do  so 
unless  a  change  is  made.  Old  men  speak  for  girlish 
brides,  and  ancient,  wrinkled-women  lead  up  very  young 

61 


men,  holding  their  arms  as  if  they  might  escape.  Once 
a  girl  came  weeping,  and  said  the  man  she  meant  to 
marry  lay  dying,  and  there  was  not  a  moment  to  lose. 
Indeed,  it  is  a  queer  place,  and  the  whole  illimitable 
gamut  that  novelists  have  spanned  in  many  centuries 
is  there  at  hand  still  sounding  fresh  notes  and  offering 
new  chords. 

62 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  MAN  AT  THE  CRIB 

THERE  must  be  men  in  Chicago  whose  fortunes  make 
them  envy  even  "  the  Man  at  the  Crib,"  but  they  cannot 
be  numerous.  It  is  for  that  very  reason  that  the  citi- 
zens generally  weave  a  web  of  sentiment  and  romance 
about  his  life,  and  have  constituted  him  their  pet  and 
their  hero.  His  position  is  indeed  a  queer  product  of 
a  city's  growth,  and  he  is  unique  among  the  municipal 
servants  of  the  day.  He  is  the  attendant  at  the  gates 
of  the  city's  water  service,  and  therefore  he  has  to  live 
out  in  the  lake,  as  lonely  as  a  light-house  keeper ;  con- 
nected with  the  greatest  bustle  and  stir  that  disturbs  the 
heart  of  a  continent,  and  yet  keeping  away  from  and  in 
advance  of  it,  like  a  sentry  in  front  of  a  castle,  or  a  scout 
ahead  of  an  army.  Every  morning  the  city  looks  out 
upon  the  watery  plain  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  sees  the 
Crib  dotting  the  expanse,  as  a  single  kernel  of  corn 
might  appear  upon  a  well-swept  barn  floor.  And  the 
Man  at  the  Crib  returns  the  gaze  as  the  gray  of  dawn 
strengthens  into  the  daylight  that  discloses  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  city's  buildings  edging  the  lake  like  an 
army  that  had  been  halted  overnight. 

The  Crib  is  two  miles  and  twenty-two  rods  off  shore, 
in  front  of  the  city.  It  looks  a  little  like  a  light-house 

63 


from  the  shore,  and  like  a  fortress  from  closer  by.  It 
is  in  reality  a  house  built  upon  a  great  stone  well,  and 
its  use  will  be  understood  when  it  is  known  how  Chicago 

o 

gets  her  water  supply  from  Lake  Michigan.  An  inclined 
tunnel  is  built  from  that  point  under  the  lake  in  such  a 
way  that  its  incline  is  towards  the  city.  It  ends  under 
the  water-works  at  a  level  several  feet  lower  than  that 
of  the  lake.  There  it  is  pumped  up  into  a  tower,  so 
that  it  may  provide  its  own  pressure  for  distributed 
house  service  as  it  flows  through  the  city's  mains.  In 
what  is  called  "  the  Crib,"  out  in  the  lake,  are  the  cylin- 
ders which  lead  down  to  the  two  tunnels  that  run  to  the 
city.  One  is  an  iron  cylinder,  9  feet  in  diameter,  lead- 
ing 31  feet  down  to  the  bigger  tunnel  of  the  two,  which 
is  7  feet  in  diameter.  The  other  is  a  smaller  cylinder 
leading  to  a  5-foot  tunnel.  These  cylinders  are  in  reali- 
ty the  gates  of  the  tunnels,  for  the  water  is  taken  from 
just  beneath  the  surface  of  the  lake. 

The  Crib  is  one  of  the  sights  of  the  visitors  to  Chicago, 
and,  like  our  Governor's  Island  or  our  Goddess  of  Liberty, 
is  reached  by  small  steamers  that  carry  passengers  out 
and  back  every  half-hour.  The  sail  is  at  all  times,  when 
the  weather  is  fine,  a  delightful  ride ;  but  in  summer, 
when  it  offers  an  escape  from  the  heated  masonry  of 
the  city  to  the  cool  breezy  surface  of  the  big  blue  lake, 
it  provides  one  of  the  greatest  treats  enjoyable  by  the 
Chicagoans.  I  made  the  trip  on  a  summer-like  Septem- 
ber afternoon,  with  a  tug-load  of  country  folk,  domes- 
tics, children,  and  school -girls.  A  great  part  of  the 
Federal  navy  upon  the  inland  lakes  chanced  to  lie  at 
anchor  in  the  offing,  and  added  to  the  interest  in  the 
voyage.  The  squadron  consisted  of  a  revenue -cutter 
and  the  old  side-wheel  steam  war-ship  IdicJiigan.  She 

64 


was  neat  and  trim  in  all  her  lines,  and  she  was  not  a 
whit  too  old-fashioned  to  suggest  the  vessels  that  bore 
our  flag  upon  the  salted  seas  not  many  years  ago. 

We  passed  beside  the  slender  bulwark  that  has  been 
lengthened  out  into  the  lake  to  protect  the  mouth  of  the 
Chicago  River,  and  landed  at  a  high  wall  of  timber  loaded 
with  stone,  which  forms  a  breakwater  around  the  fort- 
like  Crib.  The  Crib  was  found  to  be  a  hexagonal  struct- 
ure of  masonry  surrounded  by  a  narrow  waterway  en- 
closed within  the  breakwater.  Happily,  the  Man  at  the 
Crib  was  there.  It  would  have  been  a  strange  freak  of 
fortune  not  to  have  found  him,  since,  as  we  shall  see,  he 
seldom  leaves  his  hollow  island.  The  boat-load  of  pas- 
sengers walked  aimlessly  about  the  top  of  the  sea-wall, 
or  stared  at  the  dim  and  hazy  outlines  of  the  distant 
city.  A  few  pieced  together  the  joints  of  their  fishing- 
rods,  and  prepared  to  join  the  silent  company  of  anglers 
whose  legs  hung  over  the  edge  of  the  wall  like  the  tat- 
tered remnants  of  a  fringe.  I  went  with  Captain  Charles 
Magee,  the  Man  at  the  Crib. 

He  is  a  hale,  bluff  ex-mariner,  now  past  sixty  years  of 
age,  but  so  hearty  and  sound  that  his  appearance  belies 
his  years.  He  looks  like  a  sailor,  and  tells  his  visitors 
that  he  lived  upon  the  cold,  foggy,  treacherous,  and 
cruel  lakes  from  the  time  he  was  thirteen  years  old  until 
he  became  a  man  of  the  middle  age.  He  proudly  ex- 
hibits his  Crib,  and  may  well  do  so,  since  he  not  only 
keeps  it  as  neat  as  a  pin,  but  loves  to  deck  it  with  flow- 
ers besides.  It  has  been  his  home  more  than  eleven 
years.  It  is  only  the  first  story  that  looks  like  a  stone 
fort.  Above  that  is  the  captain's  dwelling — a  story  of 
brickwork — and  then  the  light-house  lantern  surmounts 
that.  The  first  story  into  which  the  captain  leads  his 
G  65 


visitors  proves  merely  a  massive  shell  of  masonry  around 
a  broad  well.  Out  of  that  rise  those  great  thirsty  mouths 
of  Chicago — the  cylinder  gates  of  the  tunnels ;  and  here 
one  sees  boxes  of  flowers  that  cheer  the  scene  even  for 
chance  callers.  Who  can  estimate  how  much  they  em- 
bellish and  gladden  the  lives  of  the  handful  of  humanity 
that  clings  to  that  stone-work  year  in  and  year  out  ? 

In  the  summer-time  the  Man  at  the  Crib  moves  in  a 
social  circle  that  comprises  his  wife,  his  daughter,  and  a 
man  who  acts  as  his  assistant.  It  is  in  the  winter  that 
his  kingdom  is  swollen  to  what  he  considers  imperial 
dimensions,  for  then  he  has  six  men  to  help  him  keep 
the  ice  out  of  the  well.  Although  the  port-holes  which 
let  in  the  water  are  12,  18,  and  24  feet  below  the  sur- 
face, ice  nevertheless  crowds  in  through  them,  and  the 
captain's  assistants  have  all  they  can  do  at  times  to  fish 
out  the  cakes  and  wheel  them  to  the  breakwater's  edge, 
there  to  dump  them  back  again  into  the  lake.  The  cap- 
tain says  that  in  the  summer  seasons  he  goes  to  the 
city  as  often  as  once  in  a  fortnight,  but  in  the  winter  he 
seldom  leaves  his  post.  When  the  ice  forms,  he  becomes 
a  prisoner.  For  weeks  at  a  time,  he  says,  he  sees  noth- 
ing from  his  quarters  but  the  ice  that  hems  his  island  in. 
He  has  been  at  the  Crib  as  long  as  seven  months  at  a 
time  without  going  ashore.  The  never-dormant  news- 
papers of  the  city  sometimes  set  afoot  the  story  that  he 
is  starving,  when  there  has  been  a  long  break  in  the 
communication  between  the  city  and  the  island.  But 
the  captain  says  he  has  never  wanted  food  since  he  be- 
came the  Man  at  the  Crib.  In  the  late  autumn  he 
gathers  a  store  of  all  the  winter's  necessaries,  except 
fresh  meat.  For  that  he  depends  upon  a  tug  that  comes 
when  it  can,  burdened  with  meat,  milk,  eggs,  and  vege- 

66 


WISCONSIN   STATE   BUILDING 


NORTH   DAKOTA   STATF:   BUILDING 


tables.  It  also  brings  the  latest  issues  of  the  newspa- 
pers, for  which  he  has  been  longing  as  only  a  man  so 
placed  can  hunger  for  tidings  of  a  world  of  which  most 
of  his  reckonings  have  been  lost.  That  tug  also  comes, 
like  a  nineteenth-century  angel  of  steam  and  steel,  to 
warm  his  heart  with  the  evidence  that  he  has  not  lost 
the  place  he  long  has  held  in  the  city's  affections.  Even 
in  that  hubbub  and  whirl,  where  too  many  persons  fancy 
they  see  only  selfish  greed,  there  are  kindly  souls  who 
sympathize  with  the  lonely  gate-keeper,  and  perhaps 
magnify  the  hardships  he  endures.  These  admirers  send 
him  fruits  and  cigars,  literature,  flowers,  and  whatever 
else  they  think  will  help  ease  his  imprisonment,  and 
show  him  that  his  friends  are  ever  thinking  kindly  of 
him. 

Perhaps  .these  thoughtful  friends,  who  are  hidden  from 
him  under  the  bank  of  soft -coal  smoke  that  he  looks 
upon  as  Chicago,  do  not  always  magnify  the  hardships 
of  the  Man  at  the  Crib.  A  few  words  he  let  fall  about 
an  adventure  last  winter  suggests  the  thought  that  it 
may  be  hard  at  times  to  overestimate  his  need  of  sym- 
pathy. One  day  last  winter  his  wife  was  taken  ill,  and 
he  carried  her  to  the  city  in  his  sailboat.  That  was  on 
a  Tuesday  morning,  and  a  north  gale  was  blowing.  As 
the  gale  continued,  he  could  not  return  until  Saturday. 
For  some  reason  "his  daughter,  a  girl  of  seventeen  or 
eighteen,  was  left  alone  at  the  Crib.  When  he  returned 
he  found  that  during  his  absence  she  had  experienced  a 
narrow  escape  from  death.  She  had  been  passing  from 
one  door  to  another  by  the  only  avenue  there  was  for 
making  the  journey — an  out-of-door  pavement  around 
the  second  story  of  the  Crib.  A  sea  leaped  over  the 
breakwater,  and  catching  her  with  all  its  bulk,  flung  her 

67 


against  the  coping  which  rails  in  the  gallery.  She  was 
badly  bruised,  but  no  bones  were  broken.  To  guard 
against  a  repetition  of  that  mishap  the  gallery  is  now 
enclosed  with  framework.  But  there  is  "  plenty  of  lee- 
way," as  the  sailors  say,  for  other  adventures  every  year 
on  that  lonely  artificial  island  in  the  lake. 

68 


CHAPTER  VI 
CHICAGO'S  ARGONAUTS 

ONE  of  the  most  peculiar  buildings  in  Chicago  has 
remained  unseen  and  unheard  of  by  most  of  the  recent 
visitors  to  that  city.  It  is  at  once  a  boat  and  a  house, 
or  a  house  in  the  form  of  a  boat,  and  it  stands  high  and 
dry  far  out  in  the  lake,  on  the  end  of  what  I  believe  is 
the  longest  wharf  on  that  water-front.  It  is  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Argonaut  Club,  and  the  boat  itself  is 
called  the  Argo.  From  Mr.  George  S.  Willits,  one  of  the 
members  and  an  influential  citizen,  I  obtained,  on  the 
occasion  of  a  visit  to  the  ship,  a  short  account  of  the 
founding  of  the  club.  It  is  the  history  of  one  of  the 
most  attractive  resorts  in  the  country.  On  a  Sunday  in 
August,  1890,  Mr.  Stuyvesant  Fish,  the  President  of  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad,  invited  a  party  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen  to  go  to  a  small  resort  on  his  railroad  for 
what  he  called,  very  temptingly,  "  a  quiet  Sunday  under 
the  trees." 

It  was  frightfully  hot  in  Chicago,  it  was  blindingly 
hot  in  the  car,  and  it  was  hotter  still  in  the  country.  On 
the  return  to  the  city  six  of  the  men  of  the  party,  Charles 
Deering,  Stuyvesant  Fish,  J.  Henry  Norton,  Charles  B. 
Macdonald,  Frederic  Eames,  and  Mr.  Willits,  dined  to- 
gether at  the  Chicago  Club.  They  talked  of  the  pe- 

69 


culiar  fact  that  though  the  great  cool  lake  (Michigan) 
reached  all  along  the  east  side  of  the  city,  there  seemed 
no  way  to  enjoy  it.  The  Illinois  Central  tracks  cut  off 
the  .lake  front  on  the  south  side,  and  the  north  side  was 
not  convenient.  Worse  yet,  if  there  were  yachts  and  a 
boat-house  at  the  command  of  the  party,  there  would  be 
no  place  to  which  to  sail,  since  there  are  no  near-by  wa- 
tering resorts  on  Lake  Michigan.  The  majority  of  the 
watering-places  frequented  by  Chicagoans  are  upon  the 
beautiful  inland  lakes,  which  reach  in  almost  a  continu- 
ous chain  into  British  America  from  a  starting-point 
quite  close  to  Chicago. 

At  last  Mr.  Fish  suggested  that  possibly  a  place  for  a 
small  house  or  landing-barge  could  be  made  at  the  end 
of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  pier,  which  is  opposite 
and  close  to  the  very  heart  of  the  business  district  of 
the  city,  and  is  approached  by  means  of  a  viaduct  over 
the  railroad  tracks.  All  the  gentlemen  visited  the  end 
of  the  pier,  and  then  leased  and  took  possession  of  it.  A 
visit  to  the  Building  Department  was  paid  by  one  of  the 
best-beloved  men  in  the  circle,  Mr.  John  W.  Root,  the 
architect,  since  deceased.  He  was  the  partner  of  Mr. 
Burnham,  who  is  at  the  head  of  the  World's  Fair  Con- 
struction Bureau,  and  who  is  also  an  Argonaut.  Mr. 
Root  was  told  that  the  Building  Department  of  the 
city  could  not  authorize  the  construction  of  a  wooden 
building. 

Being  a  genius,  Mr.  Root  turned  his  attention  to  the 
building  of  a  ship  which  could  be  launched,  but  in  all 
likelihood  never  will  be.  The  fanciful  and  romantic 
disposition  of  Mr.  Charles  Deering  led  him  to  suggest 
the  name  "Argonaut"  for  the  club,  the  name  "Argo" 
for  the  house  or  ship,  and  the  limit  of  fifty-one  for  the 

70 


membership,  to  tally  with  the  number  some  accounts 
give  of  the  mythical  crew  of  the  earlier  Argo.  All  this 
was  agreed  on  and  carried  out,  and  since  June  I,  1891, 
the  queer-looking  boat  has  stood  on  the  pier's  end,  ap- 
parently on  ways  and  ready  to  slide  into  the  lake.  It 
has  rather  ancient  lines,  being  very  short  and  very  deep, 
but  this  gives  room  for  two  tall  stories,  with  a  roomy 
deck  under  awnings  on  top  of  all,  with  ample  ports  on 
the  sides  and  an  open  end  to  the  after  main-deck,  where 
chairs  are  always  kept,  and  a  southward  view  is  had — 
though,  of  course,  the  superb  view  in  all  directions  is 
from  the  awning-covered  hurricane-deck. 

The  boat  is  so  situated  that  all  the  shipping  of  the 
port  floats  by  it,  both  coming  and  going,  and  while  it  is 
more  than  half  a  mile  out  in  the  lake,  it  is  sheltered  by 
the  Government  piers  that  form  the  outer  harbor  or 
refuge,  so  that  however  stormy  and  rough  the  lake  itself 
may  be,  the  sailors  of  the  club  have  a  safe  and  quiet  ex- 
panse of  water  over  a  mile  long  by  half  a  mile  wide  to 
sail  in.  The  club  owns  a  one-hundred-foot  steam-yacht 
built  by  the  Herreshoffs.  The  membership  is  full,  no 
one  being  or  having  been  eligible  unless  he  belongs  to. 
the  Chicago  Club,  the  oldest  and  wealthiest  social  or- 
ganization in  town.  The  governors  of  the  Argonauts 
are  the  founders :  Charles  Deering  is  commodore  (or 
president),  and  F.  H.  Ray  is  purser  (or  secretary).  The 
boat  has  every  convenience,  including  a  handsome  din- 
ing-saloon  and  several  state-rooms  or  sleeping  apart- 
ments. Meals  are  served  on  board,  and  ladies  are  invited 
on  Tuesdays  and  Fridays.  But  the  chief  charm  of  the 
unique  headquarters  is  that  it  is  always  in  a  breeze  and 
always  cool. 

It  is  a  glad  surprise  to  a  visitor,  after  having  been  in- 


vited  to  dine  on  "  the  ship,"  to  find  that  it  really  bears  a 
likeness  to  a  ship.  Every  American  who  has  gone  to 
Greenwich,  near  London,  to  visit  the  famous  inn  that  is 
called  "  The  Ship,"  has  felt  the  hope  or  belief  that  it 
would  prove  to  be  a  real  vessel — perhaps  an  old  man-of- 
war  anchored  in  the  Thames.  The  disappointment  at 
finding  that  it  is  a  tavern  and  on  land  is  almost  a  cruel 
shock  to  the  sentimental  tourist.  But  this  club-house 
at  Chicago  is  nearly  as  much  like  an  ocean  traveller  as 
Peggotty's  boat  at  Yarmouth  which  Dickens  makes  one 
of  the  prettiest  bits  of  the  scenery  of  David  Copperfield. 

"A  superannuated  boat,"  he  calls  it;  "  high  and  dry 
on  the  ground  with  an  iron  funnel  sticking  out  of  it  for 
a  chimney  and  smoking  very  cosily.  If  it  had  been 
Aladdin's  palace,  roc's  egg  and  all,  I  suppose  I  could 
not  have  been  more  charmed  with  the  romantic  idea  of 
living  in  it.  ...  There  was  a  delightful  door  cut  in  the 
side,  and  it  was  roofed  in,  and  there  were  little  windows 
in  it.  ...  It  was  beautifully  clean  inside  and  as  tidy  as 
possible." 

This  would  serve  for  a  description  of  the  Argo  as  far 
as  it  goes,  only  that,  instead  of  "  a  delightful  door  cut  in 
the  side,"  the  Chicago  boat  has  a  whimsical  door  in  the 
bottom  of  the  hull,  well  forward,  and  so  low  down  that 
it  is  said  to  be  the  only  boat  in  the  world  which  you 
enter  through  the  keel.  The  stairs,  or  companion-way 
leading  up  into  the  boat,  make  a  first  stop  at  the  cook's 
galley,  which  is  precisely  like  any  other  ship's  kitchen, 
except  that  all  its  appliances  are  of  the  most  modern 
sort,  and  devised  for  the  production  of  the  very  most 
delicious  meals,  even  such  elaborate  ones  as  we  errone- 
ously think  we  can  only  procure  in  Paris — or  New  York. 
Another  flight  of  the  stairs  reaches  the  dining-room  or 

72 


grand  saloon,  which  comprises  nearly  the  entire  second 
floor  of  the  boat.  It  is  a  very  pretty  parlor  most  of  the 
time,  but  on  Tuesdays  and  Fridays,  when  the  fashion- 
able ladies  and  maidens  are  invited  to  dine  there,  it  be- 
comes glorious  with  immaculate  linen,  shining  silver, 
sparkling  glass,  and  great  beds  and  banks  of  roses  or 
whatever  flowers  are  prettiest  in  the  market  at  the  time. 

The  steward,  who  is  called  "  mate,"  and  the  waiters, 
who  are  called  stewards,  are  at  such  times  clad  amphib- 
iously, as  all  attendants  aboard  ship  should  be,  with  lit- 
tle white  jackets  over  blue  trousers.  Since  the  members 
make  it  a  rule  to  hide  their  town  hats  and  put  on  large- 
peaked  blue  naval  caps,  they,  too,  have  a  scent  of  the  sea 
about  them.  There  is  a  great  open  fireplace  of  brick  at 
the  end  of  the  saloon.  That  is  a  queer  thing  to  find 
aboard  ship,  but  then  one  of  the  charms  of  the  Argo  is 
that  it  is  queer. 

There  is  a  wonderful  sense  of  luxury  about  the  boat 
in  hot  weather.  It  seems  to  give  fifty  men  and  their 
friends  a  first  lien  on  all  the  comfort  there  is  in  Chicago. 
And  when  hot  weather  and  ladies'  days  come  together 
it  is  grand.  There  is  always  a  breeze  around  the  Argo, 
and  it  flaps  the  window-shades  and  bellies  out  the  cur- 
tains and  makes  the  ribbons  of  the  pretty  girls  snap 
quite  "  spankingly,"  if  I  may  borrow  a  nautical  term,  as 
they  sit  out  on  the  open  after-deck,  back  of  the  saloon, 
while  the  men  smoke  and  all  send  their  eyes  down  the 
lake  shore  to  where  the  World's  Fair  buildings  rise 
like  a  white  Oriental  city.  There  is  a  hurricane-deck  on 
top  of  all,  one  story  higher  than  the  cosey  state-rooms 
where  the  members  sleep  when  they  want  to,  but  so 
perfect  a  substitute  for  a  watering-place  is  this  boat  that 
it  is  apt  to  be  too  breezy  up  there. 

73 


The  Argos  steam-launch  is  called  the  Leila,  and  is, 
I  suppose,  the  finest  steam  pleasure-craft  on  Lake  Mich- 
igan. It  is  more  than  100  feet  long,  and  can  accommodate 
all  the  Argonauts  and  their  wives  and  sweethearts.  It 
is  swift  as  well.  Every  afternoon  at  half -past  three 
o'clock  and  every  evening  at  half-past  eight  o'clock,  it 
seems  to  materialize  out  of  the  confusion  of  vessels 
among  the  wharves,  and  comes  to  a  stop  at  the  end  of 
the  pier  in  the  shadow  of  the  club-house.  If  only  one 
member  of  the  club  is  there  he  may  take  it  and  sail  to 
Evanston  or  Jackson  Park  or  straight  out  into  the  sea- 
like  lake  until  Chicago  becomes  nothing  but  a  brown 
bank  of  fog  in  the  distance,  and  the  gulls  are  the  boat's 
only  companions. 

74 


CHAPTER  VII 
KILLING   CATTLE   FOR   TWO   CONTINENTS 

IN  view  of  our  national  struggle  to  secure  the  read- 
mission  of  American  pork  to  the  markets  of  Europe, 
the  great  stock-yards  of  Chicago  have  become  interest- 
ing to  the  whole  world.  And  well  may  we  call  them 
interesting,  since  hardly  any  product  of  American  con- 
ditions more  thoroughly  typifies  our  national  enterprise 
and  ingenuity.  The  slaughtering  and  packing  industry 
of  the  country  is  now  mainly  carried  on  in  four  west- 
ern cities,  and  Chicago  is  at  the  head  of  these.  Her 
Union  Stock-yards  are  five  and  a  half  miles  from  the 
City  Hall,  in  the  middle  of  the  city.  They  comprise 
320  acres,  dotted  with  buildings  and  covered  with  the 
fenced  pens  that  confine  the  cattle.  The  place  is  a  sort 
of  city  in  itself,  and  has  20  miles  of  streets  or  alleys  be- 
tween the  pens,  20  miles  of  water-troughs,  50  miles  of 
feeding -troughs,  and  75  miles  of  water  and  drainage 
pipes.  The  plant  cost  $4,000,000,  and  the  various  pack- 
ing companies  have  invested  there  at  least  $10,000,000. 
Twenty  trunk-line  railroads  roll  their  cars  upon  the  net- 
work of  tracks  by  which  the  yard  is  served. 

During  the  early  morning  hours  the  scene  of  unload- 
ing beeves,  sheep,  and  pigs  from  the  cars  of  the  West- 
ern railroads  is  a  busy  one.  During  the  afternoon  the 
H  75 


cars  of  the  Eastern  railroads  are  laden  with  the  dressed 
and  canned  meat  that  is  to  be  sent  to  the  Eastern  cities 
and  the  seaboard.  The  Stock-yards  Company  owns  the 
railroad  tracks,  and  charges  toll  for  the  use  of  them. 
The  pens  when  filled  will  hold  15,000  sheep,  20,000  cat- 
tle, and  120,000  pigs.  All  the  live-stock  comes  con- 
signed to  commission-men,  who  make  the  sales,  which 
go  on  all  day  long,  and  which  are  marked  by  methods 
that  have  been  gradually  simplified  to  a  most  extraor- 
dinary degree.  In  an  incredibly  short  time  the  buyers 
have  rejected  what  animals  they  do  not  want,  have  ac- 
cepted others,  have  seen  the  herds  weighed  like  magic 
upon  patent  live-stock  scales,  and  have  had  a  scale  or 
weight  ticket  issued  by  the  Stock-yards  Company  pre- 
sented for  payment  as  if  it  were  a  formal  bill.  By  an 
arrangement  with  the  bank,  these  tickets  are  in  a  sim- 
ple manner  made  to  serve  as  checks.  In  the  classifica- 
tion of  the  qualities  of  cattle  the  first  class  is  that  whose 
meat  is  fit  to  send  to  the  Eastern  cities  and  to  Europe. 

The  place  is  not  beautiful,  but  neither  is  it  dirty.  Its 
atmosphere  suggests  to  the  nasal  organs  confused  recol- 
lections of  the  circuses,  menageries,  and  stables  of  for- 
mer acquaintance.  Cowboy  riders  dashing  about  on 
spunky  little  horses  lend  especial  picturesqueness  to  all 
the  out-door  scenes,  and  the  pitiful  bleating  of  the  sheep 
and  cries  of  the  cattle  give  a  pathetic  tone  to  the 
thoughts  of  the  visitor. 

After  a  long  walk  past  endless  rows  of  pens  one 
comes  to  the  central  buildings,  mainly  given  up  to  bro- 
kers' offices,  and  fronting  on  a  little  consumptive-looking 
patch  of  grass.  All  along  the  curb  and  -'elsewhere  near 
by  are  horses,  tethered  usually  to  rings  in  the  broad 
sidewalk.  Their  soft-hatted  drivers,  carrying  big  cruel- 

76 


GEORGIA   BUILDING 


THE   MASSACHUSETTS   STATE   BUILDING 


looking  bull  goads,  are  loafing  near  the  buildings,  and 
on  the  horses  are  noticed  saddles  with  big  pommels  and 
dangling  wooden  stirrups — the  contributions  of  ancient 
Spain  to  modern  Chicago.  Beyond  are  great  buildings 
that  seem  to  be  floored  with  live  sheep,  each  animal 
showing  a  black  initial  letter,  presumably  put  on  its 
wool  with  paint.  Other  sheep  in  moving  droves  pave 
certain  alleys  that  are  come  upon.  Over  and  across  the 
wide  vista  of  stock-pens  are  seen  men  bumping  up  and 
down  in  the  most  mysterious  manner.  They  are  pre- 
sumably on  horseback,  but  their  horses  can't  be  seen. 

A  change  comes  o'er  the  scene.  Some  railroad  tracks 
are  crossed,  and  the  sight-seer  stands  in  the  thick  of  a 
cluster  of  packing-houses.  From  out  of  a  doorway  un- 
der a  phenomenally  long  porch  come  huge  sides  of  red 
and  white  beef,  shot  out  as  if  from  a  multiple  cannon. 
These  great  weights  of  meat  hang  from  pulleys  that 
run  upon  a  track  overhead,  and  they  swing  along  one 
after  another  as  boards  are  turned  out  of  a  saw-mill,  and 
with  force  enough  to  toss  the  men  who  are  paid  to  guide 
them  as  if  the  men  were  jackstraws.  These  junks  of 
meat  were  moving  in  the  pens  a  short  while  before; 
now  they  are  being  loaded  into  refrigerator-cars.  In 
this  building  the  cattle  are  being  turned  into  butch- 
er's-meat.  I  saw  two  fat  and  comfortable  steers  com- 
ing out  of  an  alley,  and  was  told  that  they  were  trained 
to  lead  the  other  cattle  to  the  foot  of  an  inclined  and 
enclosed  gangway,  there  to  turn  and  leave  them,  while 
the  other  brutes  went  on  and  up  the  walk  to  the  slaugh- 
ter-pens. That  is  earning  their  living — and  an  honest 
one — with  a  vengeance ! 

I  saw  that  the  beeves  were  driven  into  pens,  and  that 
men  ran  along  or  stood  over  them  on  planks  laid  across 

77 


the  tops  of  the  pens.  I  saw  that  they  jabbed  and  prod- 
ded the  poor  beasts  into  the  right  position  for  their  pur- 
pose, and  then  that  they  felled  them  with  crushing 
blows  of  hammers  upon  their  skulls.  Then  the  doors 
of  the  pens  were  thrown  open,  chains  were  fastened 
about  the  hind-legs  of  the  unconscious  beasts,  and  they 
were  swung  up  so  that  they  hung  upon  a  trolley  run- 
ning on  a  single  overhead  rail.  Silently  and  method- 
ically the  slaughterers  walked  along  and  gashed  their 
throats,  and  the  mysterious  red  essence  of  life  was  flung 
with  drenching  volume  on  the  slippery  floor.  Rapidly, 
far  more  rapidly  than  the  reader  would  believe  unless  he 
had  seen  it  done,  the  carcasses  were  sent  back  to  the  next 
and  the  next  and  the  next  set  of  operatives  to  have 
their  hides  taken  off — so  skilfully  that  they  fetch  more 
than  any  other  hides  discarded  by  any  other  butchers 
in  the  world — to  have  their  entrails  removed,  to  have 
their  heads  and  hoofs  taken  off,  to  be  split  and  washed, 
and  to  be  sent  swinging  along  to  the  cooling- rooms. 
Silence,  skill,  expedition,  these  were  the  characteristics 
of  all  the  labor  in  that  murderous  place. 

Everything — without  particularizing  too  closely — ev- 
ery single  thing  that  appertains  to  a  slaughtered  beef  is 
sold  and  put  to  use.  The  horns  become  the  horn  of 
commerce;  the  straight  lengths  of  leg  bone  go  to  the 
cutlery-makers  and  others :  the  entrails  become  sausage- 
casings  ;  their  contents  make  fertilizing  material;  the 
livers,  hearts,  tongues,  and  tails,  and  the  stomachs,  that 
become  tripe,  all  are  sold  over  the  butchers'  counters  of 
the  nation ;  the  knuckle-bones  are  ground  up  into  bone- 
meal  for  various  uses;  the  blood  is  dried  and  sold  as  a 
powder  for  commercial  purposes ;  the  bladders  are  dried 
and  sold  to  druggists,  tobacconists,  and  others ;  the  fat 

78 


goes  into  oleomargarine,  and  from  the  hoofs  and  feet  and 
other  parts  come  glue  and  oil  and  fertilizing  ingredients. 
Over  the  slaughter-house  I  found  a  series  of  rooms 
heaped  full  of  bones  and  horns.  The  bones  had  been 
boiled  to  get  the  fat  of  the  marrow  as  well  as  to  clean 
them.  Then  they  had  been  dried  and  shaken  about  un- 
til they  were  as  smooth  and  clean  as  cotton-spools.  The 
knuckle-joints  had  been  cut  off  them,  and  one  room  was 
filled  with  the  ground -up  flour  of  those  parts.  The 
white  and  pretty  bones  that  remained  were  to  be 
shipped  to  Connecticut,  England,  and  Germany,  to  be 
worked  into  knife -handles,  fan -handles,  tooth-brush 
handles,  backs  for  nail-brushes,  sides  for  penknives,  and 
into  button -hook  handles,  shirt-studs,  cuff-buttons,  and 
so  on,  ad  infinitum.  What  was  to  become  of  the  horns 
was  still  more  astonishing.  By  heating  them  and  then 
tapping  them  skilfully,  the  operatives  had  loosened  the 
soft  cellular  filling  which  solidifies  and  strengthens  each 
horn.  The  substance  around  this,  between  it  and  the 
inner  surface  of  the  horn,  goes  for  glue ;  the  rest  is 
ground  up  into  bone-meal.  The  horns  were  then  to  be 
sent  to  the  makers  of  horn  goods,  who,  by  cutting  each 
horn  skilfully  and  then  pressing  it  between  heavy  roll- 
ers, manage  to  spread  each  one  out  into  a  flat  ribbon. 
In  this  shape  it  can  be  used  in  a  thousand  ways.  The 
artificers  who  do  this  work  cut  each  horn  spirally,  so 
that  it  becomes  a  tight  curl  capable  of  being  straight- 
ened out.  By  immense  pressure  the  curve  is  taken  out 
of  it.  Good  horns  sell  at  $125  a  ton.  It  is  by  such 
thorough  economy  and  ingenuity  —  by  losing  nothing 
and  wasting  nothing — that  the  great  firms  in  this  busi- 
ness have  monopolized  their  field.  A  small  butcher  in 
the  East  cannot  kill  his  meat  and  market  it  in  competi- 

79 


tion  with  the  stock-yards  packers,  because  he  must  waste 
what  they  save  and  sell. 

I  made  a  tour  of  the  refrigerating  or  cooling  rooms. 
They  are  kept  at  a  temperature  of  36°,  I  believe.  Yet, 
when  the  meat  fresh  from  the  slaughter  is  railroaded 
into  such  a  room,  the  animal  heat  in  it  warms  the  room 
for  a  considerable  time,  and  fills  it  with  steam  as  with 
a  fog.  Once  it  is  cooled,  the  sides  of  beef  become  firm 
and  hard  and  almost  appetizing.  Everywhere,  except 
at  the  actual  scene  of  slaughter,  these  houses  and  the 
work  in  them  are  clean  and  above  criticism.  While  I 
looked  on,  they  were  killing  four  beeves  a  minute,  or 
250  in  every  hour.  There  were  slaughtered  in  those 
stock-yards  during  1890  no  less  than  2,219,312  head  of 
cattle,  more  than  1,000,000  sheep,  and  5,733,082  hogs. 

The  hog-killing  is  done  in  a  very  much  more  peculiar 
manner  than  the  slaughtering  of  the  cattle.  In  the 
catching-pen  are  many  hogs.  Let  us  follow  one.  The 
catcher  snaps  a  chain  around  one  leg,  and  hooks  the 
loose  end  of  the  chain  to  the  trolley.  The  hog  swings 
out  of  the  pen  to  where  a  butcher  stands  on  a  grating. 
The  butcher,  with  a  deft  thrust,  cuts  the  animal  to  the 
heart,  and  death  is  practically  instantaneous.  The  dead 
body  swings  along  to  be  loosened  over  a  vat  of  scalding 
water,  into  which  it  is  plunged.  Other  bodies  are  there, 
and  the  water  is  loosening  their  bristles.  Suddenly  a 
great  rake  scoops  out  a  hog,  and  it  falls  upon  a  runway, 
where  a  chain  that  is  hooked  to  its  nose  pulls  it  through 
a  steam-scraper.  The  knives  of  this  machine  are  set  at 
every  angle,  and  miss  no  part  of  the  hide  on  the  body. 

Once  out  of  the  reach  of  the  scraper  a  number  of 
men  pass  the  body  along,  and  remove  every  bristle  and 
speck  that  was  missed.  Then  the  body,  still  travelling 

So 


along,  is  washed  with  a  hose  and  its  head  is  all  but  cut 
off.  Next  it  is  disembowelled.  Then  the  lard  is  re- 
moved, the  head  is  cut  off,  the  tongue  is  taken  out, 
and  the  body  is  split  and  passed  along  to  the  cooling- 
rooms.  Again  everything  is  saved.  The  blood  is  turned 
into  albumen  for  photographers'  uses,  is  sold  to  sugar- 
refiners,  and  is  turned  into  fertilizing  powder.  The  bris- 
tles go  to  brush-makers,  shoemakers,  and  upholsterers. 
The  fat  is  valuable  in  many  forms,  the  intestines  become 
sausage-casings,  the  livers,  lungs,  and  hearts  are  minced 
up  into  sausage-meat,  and  parts  of  the  meat  of  the  heads 
make  up  into  head-cheese.  The  feet  are  canned  or  pic- 
kled, or  worked  up  in  the  lard  tanks.  The  last  that  I  saw 
of  the  hogs  was  in  a  vast  cold  cellar,  where  men  were 
salting  and  turning  sides  of  pork  that  were  so  numerous 
as  to  form  mounds  and  walls,  much  as  one  sees  boards 
piled  up  in  a  lumber-yard. 

As  I  passed  out  of  the  yards  some  one  handed  a  card 
to  me.  It  contained  a  record  of  the  business  of  one 
firm,  the  leading  one  of  the  "big  four"  packing  con- 
cerns. It  showed  that  during  the  year  ending  April  i, 
1891,  that  company  transacted  sales  01  $66,000,000 
worth  of  meat  and  other  goods.  It  killed  712,000  cat- 
tle, 1,714,000  hogs,  and  nearly  500,000  sheep.  It  em- 
ployed 7900  persons,  and  paid  nearly  $4,000,000  in 
wages.  It  owned  2250  refrigerator-cars  and  50  acres  of 
buildings.  It  made  7,000,000  pounds  of  glue  and  9500 
tons  of  fertilizer.  I  suspect  that  its  hogs  and  sheep  and 
boxes  of  glue  and  sides  of  beef  and  cans  of  meat  may 
stretch  out,  if  piled  one  on  the  other,  from  here  to  the 
moon,  but  I  leave  the  calculation  to  others,  satisfying 
myself  with  the  reflection  that  America  is  great,  and 
Chicago  is  its  prophet. 

81 


CHAPTER  VIII 
'ROUND  ABOUT  THE  TOWN 

I  HAVE  referred  to  Chicago  as  a  typically  American 
city,  and  so  I  still  believe  it  to  be,  but  it  is  American 
only  in  the  spirit  that  dominates  it.  In  population  it  is 
almost  as  mixed  and  cosmopolitan  as  New  York,  New 
Orleans,  or  San  Francisco.  It  is,  in  size,  the  second  city 
on  the  continent  and  the  seventh  in  the  world.  It  is 
built  upon  a  plateau  25  feet  above  the  level  of  Lake 
Michigan,  and  592  feet  above  the  ocean's  surface.  The 
nearest  Atlantic  port  is  Baltimore,  850  miles  distant,  and 
San  Francisco  is  2417  miles  to  the  westward.  This  is 
how  the  last  census,  which  estimated  the  population  at 
1,208,689  souls,  divided  the  peoples  of  the  city  : 


Germans 384,968 

Americans 292,463 

Irish 215.534 

Bohemians 54,209 

Poles 52,756 

Swedish „..     45,877 

English 33,785 

French 12,963 

Scotch 11,927 

Welsh 2,966 

Russians 9,977 


Danes 9,891 

Italians... 9>92i 

Hollanders 4,912 

Hungarians 4,827 

Swiss 2,735 

Roumanians 4,35o 

Canadians 6,989 

Belgians 682 

West  Indians 37 

Hawaiians 31 

Chinese 1,217 


Greeks,  Spaniards,  and  East  Indians,  a  very  few  of  each. 
82 


Of  the  model  city  of  Pullman,  ten  miles  south  of  the 
Chicago  Court-house,  I  quote  from  an  able  article  in 
HARPER'S  MAGAZINE,  with  some  alterations  of  the  text 
to  suit  it  to  the  changes,  principally  in  growth,  which 
time  has  wrought.  The  place  is  a  dozen  years  old.  It 
is  a  town  of  14,600  inhabitants,  on  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad,  and  was  founded  by  the  Pullman  Palace -car 
Company,  whose  president  and  leading  spirit  is  Mr. 
George  M.  Pullman.  Its  purpose  was  to  provide  both  a 
centre  of  industry  and  homes  for  the  employe's  of  the 
company,  and  such  additional  laborers  as  might  be  at- 
tracted to  the  place  by  other  opportunities  to  labor.  A 
manufacturing  town,  it  embraces  the  principal  works  of 
the  Pullman  Palace -car  Company,  in  addition  to  the 
Union  Foundery  and  Pullman  Car- wheel  Works,  the 
Pullman  Iron  and  Steel  Works,  the  Chicago  Drop  Forge 
and  Foundery  Company,  the  Standard  Knitting  Mills  for 
making  fine  hosiery,  the  Calumet  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany for  making  paints,  the  Terra- cotta  Lumber  Com- 
pany, the  Pullman  Brickworks,  and  numerous  less  im- 
portant enterprises. 

Very  gratifying  is  the  impression  of  the  visitor  who 
passes  hurriedly  through  Pullman  and  observes  only  the 
splendid  provision  for  the  present  material  comforts  of 
its  residents.  What  is  seen  in  a  walk  or  drive  through 
the  streets  is  so  pleasing  to  the  eye  that  a  woman's  first 
exclamation  is  certain  to  be,  "  Perfectly  lovely !"  It  is, 
indeed,  a  sight  as  rare  as  it  is  delightful.  What  might 
have  been  taken  for  a  wealthy  suburban  town  is  given 
up  to  busy  workers,  who  literally  earn  their  bread  in  the 
sweat  of  their  brows.  No  favorable  sites  are  set  apart 
for  drones  living  on  past  accumulations,  and  if  a  few 
short  stretches  are  reserved  for  residences  which  can  be 

83 


rented  only  by  those  whose  incomes  are  large,  this 
is  an  exception ;  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  remain 
long  in  the  place  to  notice  that  clergymen,  officers 
of  the  company,  and  mechanics  live  in  adjoining 
dwellings. 

One  of  the  most  striking  peculiarities  of  this  place  is 
the  all-pervading  air  of  thrift  and  providence.  The  most 
pleasing  impression  of  general  well-being  is  at  once  pro- 
duced. Not  a  dilapidated  door-step  nor  a  broken  win- 
dow, stuffed  perhaps  with  old  clothing,  is  to  be  found  in 
the  city.  The  streets  are  wide  and  finely  macadamized, 
and  young  shade  trees  on  each  side  now  ornament  the 
town.  Lawns,  always  of  the  same  width,  separate  the 
houses  from  the  street,  but  they  are  so  green  and  neatly 
trimmed  that  one  can  overlook  this  regularity  of  form. 
Although  the  houses  are  built  in  groups  of  two  or  more, 
and  even  in  blocks,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  large 
buildings  of  cheap  flats,  they  bear  no  resemblance  to 
barracks.  Simple  but  ingenious  designs  secure  variety, 
of  which  the  most  skilful  is  probably  the  treatment  of 
the  sky-line.  Naturally,  without  an  appearance  of  effort, 
it  assumes  an  immense  diversity.  The  streets  cross  each 
other  at  right  angles,  yet  here  skill  has  avoided  the  fright- 
ful monotony  of  New  York.  A  public  square,  arcade, 
hotel,  market,  or  some  large  building,  is  often  set  across 
a  street  so  ingeniously  as  to  break  the  regular  line,  yet 
without  inconvenience  to  traffic.  Then,  at  the  termina- 
tion of  long  streets,  a  pleasing  view  greets  and  relieves 
the  eye — a  bit  of  water,  a  stretch  of  meadow,  a  clump 
of  trees,  or  even  one  of  the  large  but  neat  workshops. 
Desirable  houses  have  been  provided  for  a  large  laboring 
population  at  so  small  a  cost  that  they  can  be  rented  at 
rates  within  their  means  and  yet  yield  a  handsome  re- 

84 


turn  on  the  capital  invested.  Rents  are  probably  about 
three-fifths  what  they  are  in  Chicago. 

It  is  a  mere  matter  of  course  that  there  are  architectu- 
ral defects  even  in  Pullman.  The  diversity  is  not  quite 
all  that  could  be  desired.  What  may  be  called  the  public 
buildings — that  is  to  say,  the  hotel,  school-house,  arcade, 
etc.,  are  detached,  but  no  private  house  stands  by  itself, 
though  there  are  quite  a  number  of  detached  double 
houses.  Spaces  have,  however,  been  reserved  for  a  few 
detached  private  residences,  which  will  improve  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  town.  With  the  exception  of  the  church 
and  parsonage,  built  of  green  serpentine  stone  from  Phil- 
adelphia, all  the  buildings  are  of  brick.  This  is  monot- 
onous, and  rather  wearying  to  the  eye,  but  the  slate 
roofs,  and  a  large  use  of  light  stone  trimmings,  and 
stripes  of  black  across  the  houses,  help  matters  some- 
what. The  growth  of  shade  trees  will  break  into  the 
sameness,  and  the  magnificent  boulevard  which  divides 
the  shops  on  the  north  from  the  residences  on  the  south, 
stretching  from  east  to  west  across  the  town,  and  bor- 
dered with  double  rows  of  elms,  will,  twenty  years  from 
now,  be  a  vast  improvement.  Great  overarching  trees 
will  hide  one  part  of  the  town  from  another,  and  give 
opportunity  for  pleasant  surprises  in  nature  and  art. 

The  interior  of  the  houses  affords  scarcely  less  gratifi- 
cation than  their  exterior.  Even  the  humblest  suite  of 
rooms  in  the  flats  is  provided  with  water,  gas,  and  closets, 
and  no  requisite  of  cleanliness  is  omitted.  Quite  a  large 
number  of  houses  contain  seven  rooms,  and  in  these 
larger  dwellings  there  is  also  a  bath-room.  Outside  of 
the  home  one  finds  other  noteworthy  provisions  for  the 
comfort,  convenience,  and  well-being  of  the  residents  in 
Pullman.  There  is  a  large  Market -house,  100  by  110 


feet  in  size,  through  which  a  wide  passage  extends 
from  east  to  west.  This  building  contains  a  basement 
and  two  stories,  the  first  divided  into  sixteen  stalls,  the 
second  a  public  hall.  The  dealers  in  meat  and  vege- 
tables are  concentrated  in  the  Market-house.  The  finest 
building  in  Pullman  is  the  Arcade,  a  structure  256  feet 
in  length,  146  feet  in  width,  and  90  feet  in  height.  It  is 
built  of  red  pressed  brick,  with  stone  foundations  and 
light  stone  trimmings,  and  a  glass  roof  extends  over  the 
entire  wide  central  passage.  In  the  Arcade  one  finds 
offices,  shops,  the  bank,  theatre,  library,  etc.  As  no  shops 
or  stores  are  allowed  in  the  town  outside  of  the  Arcade 
and  Market-house,  all  shopping  in  Pullman  is  done  under 
roof — a  great  convenience  in  wet  weather,  and  a  saving 
of  time  and  strength. 

The  theatre,  situated  in  the  Arcade  as  just  mentioned, 
seats  800  people,  and  is  elegantly  and  tastefully  furnished. 
It  was  intended  to  embrace  in  this  theatre  many  of  the 
best  features  of  the  Madison  Square  Theatre.  Represen- 
tations are  frequently  given  by  various  troupes.  There 
is  nothing  peculiar  in  the  management.  The  company 
rents  it  to  applicants,  but  attempts  to  exclude  immoral 
pieces,  and  admit  only  such  as  shall  afford  innocent 
amusement  and  instruction.  The  library,  which  opens 
on  this  balcony,  contains  6000  volumes,  the  gift  of  Mr. 
Pullman,  and  numerous  periodicals,  among  which  were 
noticed  several  likely  to  be  of  special  importance  to  me- 
chanics. The  library  rooms  are  elegantly  furnished  with 
Wilton  carpets  and  plush -covered  chairs,  and  the  walls 
are  beautifully  painted.  The  educational  facilities  of 
Pullman  are  those  generally  afforded  in  larger  American 
villages  by  the  public-school  system. 

When  the  writer  of  this  treatise  was  in  Pullman  he 

86 


found  that  the  Pullman  companies  retained  everything. 
No  private  individual  owned  a  square  rod  of  ground  or 
a  single  structure  in  the  entire  town.  "  No  organization, 
not  even  a  church,  can  occupy  any  other  than  rented 
quarters.  With  the  exception  of  the  management  of 
the  public  school,  every  municipal  act  here  is  the  act  of 
a  private  corporation.  What  this  means  will  be  perceived 
when  it  is  remembered  that  it  includes  such  matters  as 
the  location,  repairs,  and  cleaning  of  streets  and  side- 
walks, the  maintenance  of  the  fire  department,  and  the 
taking  of  the  local  census  whenever  desired.  When  the 
writer  was  in  Pullman  a  census  was  taken.  A  superior 
officer  of  the  company  said  to  an  inferior,  '  I  want  a 
census,'  and  told  what  kind  of  a  census  was  desired. 
That  was  the  whole  matter.  The  people  of  the  place 
had  no  more  to  say  about  it  than  a  resident  of  Kam- 
tchatka." 

Those  World's  Fair  visitors  who  divide  their  time  in 
Chicago  between  the  Exposition  and  the  city  will  be 
moved  by  different  impulses  in  enjoying  the  latter's 
"  sights."  Some,  for  whose  taste  it  seems  to  me  diffi- 
cult to  account,  will  take  the  pains  to  visit  the  Hay- 
market,  where,  on  May  4,  1886,  took  place  the  infamous 
anarchist  meeting  when  dynamite  bombs  were  thrown 
among  the  police.  They  will  see  simply  an  uninviting 
part  of  the  city  and  the  monument  erected  in  honor  of 
the  police.  Possibly  some  will  visit  the  county  jail  to 
look  at  the  entirely  ordinary  cells  in  which  the  felons 
were  first  imprisoned.  The  beautiful  parks  and  the  stat- 
ues of  varying  degrees  of  sightliness  will  interest  many 
more  persons  ;  the  throngs  in  the  broad  but  crowded 
streets  will  satisfy  still  more.  The  lake  shore  in  front 
of  the  hotels  is  steadily  growing  busier  and  more  attract- 
By 


ive,  and  already  constitutes  a  peculiar  feature  of  the 
town.  There  the  steamers  that  make  excursions  to  the 
water-supply  cribs  and  to  the  lake-side  resorts  are  gath- 
ered, with  bands  of  music  playing  upon  their  promenade- 
decks,  tooters  yelling  for  the  rival  lines,  and  great  crowds 
of  pleasure-seekers  almost  mingling  with  the  throng  at 
the  Van  Buren  Street  Station  of  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad,  which  runs  trains,  almost  comparable  with  our 
elevated  trains  in  frequency,  to  the  Exposition  Grounds 
and  the  thickening  settlements  which  are  building  up 
the  south  side  of  the  city. 

The  lake  front  reveals  another  marked  peculiarity  of 
the  city — the  fondness  of  the  citizens  for  the  sport  of 
fishing.  Running  out  from  the  shore  are  great  Govern- 
ment breakwaters  of  crib-work,  which  rise,  like  narrow 
causeways,  a  little  above  the  water's  surface.  These  are 
turned  into  fishing  piers  by  the  people,  who  form  a  fringe 
along  them  on  all  pleasant  days.  But  the  habit  is  car- 
ried to  such  an  extreme  that  the  bulwarks  are  often 
crowded  in  the  hot  weather.  Then  many  thousands  of 
persons  begin  to  gather  there  at  dawn,  to  presently  form 
a  multitude,  which  includes  very  many  girls  and  women 
as  well  as  men  and  boys.  A  number  of  bumboats,  which 
the  city,  county,  and  State  authorities  have  successively 
tried  in  vain  to  drive  away,  are  moored  alongside  the 
breakwaters,  and  supply  the  crowds  with  drinks  and  food. 
Bait  merchants,  whose  nets  fixed  on  the  string- pieces 
are  so  numerous  as  to  give  the  structures  a  picturesque 
appearance,  drive  a  good  trade,  and  the  strings  of  fish 
that  are  caught  are  seen  in  every  part  of  the  town  as  the 
fishers  carry  them  homeward. 

But  the  tall  buildings  will  seem  the  greatest  novelties 
to  the  visitors  from  rural  districts  and  from  most  cities. 


Built  of  frames  of  steel,  enclosed  with  mere  envelopes  of 
masonry,  and  set  upon  great  pads  upon  the  blue  clay 
beneath  the  city,  they  rise  like  steeples  on  every  hand 
in  the  thick  of  the  town,  and  invite  strangers  to  flit  up 
and  down  in  their  light  and  often  elegant  interior  courts, 
in  the  swift  express  elevators  with  which  they  are  all 
provided. 

The  highest  of  these  almost  preposterous  piles — the 
tallest  building  in  the  world — is  the  Masonic  Temple. 
Its  roof  is  now  fitted  up  as  a  roof  garden,  and  is,  of 
course,  unparalleled  in  height  by  any  other  place  of  re- 
sort except  the  Eiffel  Tower  or  the  few  world-famous 
steeples  of  highest  reach.  The  topmost  story  of  the 
Masonic  Temple  is  298  feet  above  the  corner-stone.  The 
ceiling  of  the  rOof  garden  is  302  feet  up  in  the  air,  and 
the  roof  itself  is  32  feet  higher  than  any  point  of  obser- 
vation in  the  Auditorium  tower,  and  28  feet  above  any 
point  accessible  to  the  public  in  Chicago.  The  roof  is 
in  reality  turned  into  an  additional  story — the  twenty- 
first  in  order — for  it  is  entirely  enclosed  by  sliding  win- 
dows, and  covered  by  its  own  roofing  of  heavy  plate-glass. 
It  is  fitted  with  steam-heating  pipes  for  the  comfort  of 
visitors  during  cold  weather,  and  is  set  about  with  flow- 
ers and  plants,  the  plan  of  the  managers  being  to  aug- 
ment these  attractions  with  music  and  refreshments 
during  the  term  of  the  World's  Fair.  This  great  roof 
chamber  will  accommodate  2000  persons.  It  is  reached 
by  seventeen  elevators.  Fourteen  of  these  are  for  pas- 
sengers, disposed  in  a  semicircle  at  one  side  of  the  in- 
terior court,  and  forming  an  imposing  battery  in  the 
rotunda  on  the  ground-floor.  These  elevators  are  run 
to  a  greater  height  than  any  others  in  New  York,  Phil- 
adelphia, or  Chicago,  or,  in  fact,  than  any  except  those 


in  the  Eiffel  Tower.  They  are  forced  to  a  distance  of 
258  feet,  at  the  speed  of  750  feet  a  minute.  To  balance 
the  great  weight  of  the  suspending  ropes,  each  car  carries 
a  length  of  chain.  Seven  of  the  elevators  run  "express" 
to  the  tenth  floor,  and  then  begin  to  make  stops  at  the 
higher  stories. 

The  view  from  this  altitudinous  roof  garden  compre- 
hends practically  all  of  Chicago.  Lincoln  Park  is  en- 
tirely within  the  range  of  vision  on  the  north,  and  so  are 
the  World's  Fair  Grounds  on  the  south,  with  the  roofs 
of  the  city  intervening  and  reaching  far  to  the  westward. 
The  T-shaped  river  and  its  compressed  activity  are  in 
plain  sight,  and  so  is  the  magnificent  lake,  with  its  break- 
waters, its  cribs,  its  curving  shore,  and  its  changing  col- 
lections of  shipping. 

The  building  is  owned  by  the  Masonic  Fraternity 
Temple  Association,  a  stock  company  capitalized  at 
$2,000,000,  in  20,000  one-hundred-dollar  shares.  By  an 
issue  of  bonds,  the  company  has  raised  $1,500,000  in  ad- 
dition to  meet  the  total  requirement  of  $3,500,000  need- 
ed for  the  completion  of  the  undertaking.  Stock  to  the 
value  of  $1,500,000  was  subscribed  for  in  Chicago.  The 
first  sixteen  of  the  twenty-one  stories  are  arranged  for 
offices,  the  four  next  succeeding  floors  being  adapted  for 
Masonic  lodge -rooms,  cloak-rooms,  an  assembly  hall,  a 
kitchen,  a  smoking-room,  and  for  other  uses.  These 
apartments  are  said  to  form  the  most  elegant  and  well- 
devised  headquarters  at  the  disposal  of  any  fraternal  or- 
ganization in  Christendom. 

90 


CHAPTER    IX 
CHICAGO   AND    HER   RAILROAD    WEB 

CHICAGO  paraphrases  an  ancient  Roman  boast.  She 
likes  to  say  that  "  all  (rail)  roads  lead  to  Chicago."  It 
is  close  enough  to  the  truth  to  be  quoted  as  indicative 
of  how  truly  great  a  railroad  centre  Chicago  is.  That  is 
the  first  of  the  really  great  cities  of  the  United  States 
that  was  developed  by  the  railroads.  The  older  cities 
grew  in  importance  according  as  the  multiplying  steam- 
boats and  ships,  as  well  as  railroads,  came  to  them  in  the 
natural  course ;  but  in  the  West  nearly  all  the  roads 
sought  out  Chicago,  and  caused  her  to  wax  great  and 
powerful.  Chicago  would  have  forgotten  this  fact  as 
being  a  mere  incident  of  her  childhood ;  but  she  has  not 
been  permitted  to  forget  it.  She  has  outgrown  depend- 
ence upon  the  railroads,  or,  rather,  they  have  become 
subordinate  to  her,  and  it  is  when  the  local  fathers  at- 
tempt to  discipline  the  railroads  that  she  is  reminded  by 
them  of  how  much  of  her  greatness  these  officials  con- 
sider due  to  their  agency. 

It  is  fitting  that  the  first  great  railroad  centre  should 
have  become  the  greatest  sufferer  from  those  evils  which 
follow  the  passage  of  railroads  through  or  into  a  city. 
Such  is  the  case  with  Chicago.  A  battery  of  railroad 
tracks  skirts  part  of  the  lake  shore  which,  elsewhere,  the 

91 


city  has  beautified  and  made  its  constant  care  and  joy. 
And,  since  most  of  the  roads  came  into  the  town  when 
it  was  very  small — or  now  come  in  over  routes  laid  out 
at  that  time — it  follows  that  to  reach  their  terminals  the 
roads  cut  across  the  city  at  many  angles.  These  long 
avenues  upon  which  the  steam-cars  run  constitute  one 
of  the  peculiar  features  of  the  city.  The  tracks  are 
fenced  in,  and  at  the  street-crossings  are  those  finger-like 
gates  with  which  all  American  railroad  travellers  are  fa- 
miliar. These  gates,  having  two  long  thin  arms  which 
swing  towards  one  another  upon  pivots  when  the  thor- 
oughfares are  to  be  blocked,  are  worked  by  men  who  sit 
up  in  little  boxes  on  the  tops  of  tall  posts — exaggerated 
sparrow-boxes  are  what  they  look  like  ;  and,  in  reality, 
they  are  but  little  larger  than  such  kennels  as  we  house 
St.  Bernard  dogs  in. 

There  is  a  ladder  up  one  side  of  each  pole,  and  the 
door  of  each  box  is  in  its  floor.  In  each  box  there  is  a 
tiny  stove,  a  chair,  a  shelf,  and  the  levers  that  the  gate- 
man  uses  to  work  the  gates.  The  boxes  command  views 
up  and  down  the  tracks  and  the  cross-streets.  As  all  the 
railroads  run  on  the  same  grade  or  level  as  the  streets, 
the  usefulness  of  these  long  rows  of  watch-boxes  is  ap- 
parent ;  and  yet  the  slaughter  and  mangling  and  maiming 
of  the  citizens  by  the  railroads  goes  on,  and  is  unparal- 
leled elsewhere  in  the  world.  The  people  of  Chicago 
may  be  said  to  know  that  each  rising  of  the  sun  ushers 
in  a  day  in  which  a  human  life  will  be  slain  by  some  train 
of  cars,  so  nearly  do  the  murders  in  each  year  approach 
the  sum  of  one  a  day.  And  that  is  saying  nothing  of 
the  mangling  that  goes  on  ! 

The  occupation  of  a  part  of  the  lake  front  by  the  rail- 
roads has  fretted  the  officials  more  than  any  other  source 

92 


of  complaint  against  the  steam  roads.  The  part  of  the 
lake  front  that  is  used  thus  is  that  large  section  lying 
south  of  the  Chicago  River,  from  the  river  to  somewhere 
about  Fiftieth  Street,  or  near  the  grounds  of  the  Colum- 
bian Exposition.  The  tracks  are  the  property  of  the  Il- 
linois Central  Railroad,  but  they  are  used  by  four  other 
railroads,  all  of  them  busy  ones.  Everybody  who  has  vis- 
ited Chicago  during  the  past  twenty  years  will  recollect 
the  ruin-like  depot  buildings  in  use  at  the  end  of  these 
tracks.  Constant  agitation  and  uncertainty  as  to  the  di- 
vision of  rights  between  the  Illinois  Central  and  the  city 
has,  I  believe,  occasioned  the  delay  in  the  construction 
of  a  station  there  to  vie  with  the  others  in  the  city,  which 
are  mainly  large  and  thoroughly  equipped.  The  railroad, 
company  has  held  that  it  owned  the  lake  front  route  in 
fee  simple  and  also  the  riparian  rights.  It  has  been  de- 
cided by  one  court  that  it  has  a  full  title  to  certain  parts 
of  it,  but  only  an  easement  or  right  of  way  in  the  remain- 
der. Another  court  may  view  the  case  differently,  of 
course,  but  in  the  mean  time  the  railroad  made  an  offer 
to  the  city  which,  had  it  been  accepted,  would  have  led 
to  the  sinking  of  the  tracks  along  the  shore,  so  that  the 
city  could  have  treated  the  water-front  as  a  park,  and  the 
railroad  would  not  have  interfered  with  the  effect.  For 
such  rights  and  claims  as  the  company  would  surrender 
it  asked  remuneration,  and,  upon  this  feature  of  the  prop- 
osition being  considered,  there  arose  those  inevitable  per- 
sons who  were  startled  by  what  they  called  the  grasping 
character  of  the  corporation.  And  thus  was  lost  a  chance 
that  may  never  come  again.  In  the  mean  time  the  six 
tracks  of  the  road  are  kept  busy  night  and  day  in  front 
of  the  hotel  centre  of  the  town,  and  that  which  should 
be  a  beauty-spot  is  very  like  a  railroad  switching-yard, 

93 


than  which  there  are  not  many  objects  more  unprepos- 
sessing. 

Dangerous  as  the  traffic  is  at  present,  its  evils  are  as 
nothing  to  those  which  would  exist  if  the  present  state 
of  things  continued  during  the  Exposition,  when  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  persons  and  teams  would  have  to 
cross  the  tracks  to  reach  the  Fair  Grounds,  and  when  the 
trains  will  have  been  so  multiplied  that  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  they  will  be  run  every  two  minutes.  This  being 
understood,  a  great  force  of  men  is  now  employed  in 
raising  the  tracks  near  the  Fair  Grounds  to  a  height  of 
twelve  feet  above  the  present  level,  and  the  streets  are  to 
dive  under  them  so  that  the  cars  will  cross  overhead,  on 
bridges.  When  the  road-bed  is  raised  to  a  certain 
height  by  a  sort  of  Egyptian  process  of  shovelling  dirt 
upon  one  track  from  trains  upon  another,  and  then  from 
the  raised  track  down  upon  the  first  one  the  perform- 
ance is  repeated  to  and  fro — by  something  like  a  proc- 
ess of  pure  perspiration  —  until  the  whole  wide  series 
of  tracks  are  up  where  they  are  wanted  to  be.  A  new 
million-dollar  depot  will  speedily  be  erected  in  place  of 
the  present  unsightly  ruins.  These  great  improvements 
the  Illinois  Central  is  making  of  its  own  accord,  and  it 
is  deserving  of  great  credit  for  the  fact. 

Despite  the  great  area  of  land  which  Chicago  occupies, 
her  business  portion  is  very  much  compressed — far  more 
than  that  of  New  York.  The  reason  for  this  is  that  all 
the  railroads  reach  the  very  heart  of  the  town.  Their 
freight  and  passenger  depots  are  close  together,  and 
these  force  the  bulk  of  the  mercantile  business  into  a 
little  space  for  convenience'  sake.  Whoever  looks  upon 
a  map  of  the  great  city  will  be  surprised  to  see  that 
these  depots  really  wall  or  frame  a  space  of  only  about 

94 


THE   FRANKLIN    STATUE   FOR   THE   ROOF   OF 
THE   ELECTRICAL   BUILDING 


a  mile  square.  It  is  only  a  mile  and  a  quarter  from  the 
Chicago  and  North-western  Depot  on  the  north  side  to 
the  Dearborn  Depot — the  one  farthest  south.  But  it  is 
only  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  Union 
Depot  on  the  west  side  to  the  Illinois  Central  Depot  on 
the  lake  front.  The  reader  sees  in  this  fact  why  Chicago 
has  such  tall  buildings,  and  so  many  of  them.  Laughed 
at  for  having  reached  out  and  seized  scores  of  square 
miles  of  prairie,  and  even  yet  possessing  farms  within 
her  city  limits,  she  none  the  less  feels  her  "  business  el- 
bow-room "  more  cramped  than  if  she  were  on  narrow 
Manhattan  Island.  In  the  little  square  mile,  around 
whose  edges  the  railroads  end,  are  all  her  towering  office 
buildings,  her  principal  hotels,  her  leading  stores,  her 
wholesale  warehouses,  her  public  buildings,  restaurants, 
exchanges,  and  all  her  principal  centres  of  trade  and  re- 
sort. Many  of  these  buildings  have  been  piled  high  in 
the  air  because  the  ground  is  crowded  and  the  only  lee- 
way is  upward. 

Some  day — it  is  a  problem  many  men  are  study- 
ing—  this  heart  of  the  city  must  be  enlarged,  and  the 
probability  is  that  this  will  be  done  by  moving  all  the 
depots  back  a  mile  or  so.  When  that  is  accomplished 
they  may  be  connected  by  a  circular  railroad — an  ele- 
vated road,  most  persons  predict.  Then  travellers  by 
the  various  roads  can  connect  with  others  than  those 
upon  which  they  come  in,  and  may  continue  their  jour- 
neys without  delay.  This  cannot  be  done  now.  Chicago 
stops  every  traveller  now,  like  a  giant  highwayman,  and 
makes  him  or  her  pay  homage  to  it  whether  the  travel- 
ler wishes  to  break  his  journey  there  or  not,  taking  his 
baggage  and,  in  most  cases,  holding  his  person  at  a  hotel 
until  a  later  hour  or  another  day. 

95 


It  will  be  interesting  to  add  a  note  about  each  of  the 
Chicago  depots  that  squeeze  in  the  vital  organs  of  the 
city  like  iron  corsets.  There  are  seven  of  them :  the 
Dearborn,  the  Illinois  Central,  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio, 
the  Union,  the  Grand  Central,  the  Van  Buren  Street, 
and  the  Chicago  and  North-western.  They  are  so  close 
to  one  another  that  they  seem-  almost  to  transform  the 
thick  of  the  city  into  one  great  railway  depot — the  great- 
est in  the  world.  More  than  85,000  miles  of  railroad 
centre  there  to-day,  and  nearly  all  the  great  systems  of 
the  United  States,  Canada,  and  Mexico  meet  there.  If 
we  speak  of  those  which  enter  the  city  by  leased  or  con- 
tributory lines  we  leave  out  scarcely  any  notable  rail- 
road in  North  America. 

Those  visitors  to  the  Fair  who  will  enter  the  city  by 
skirting  the  lake  shore  and  passing  close  to  the  Fair 
Grounds  will  end  their  journeys  at  the  Illinois  Central 
Depot,  in  front  of  the  densest  part  of  town.  This  Illi-. 
nois  Central  Railroad  operates  2875  miles  of  road,  and 
connects  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  with  Lake  Michigan,  reach- 
ing such  principal  points  as  St.  Louis,  Cairo,  Memphis, 
and  New  Orleans,  at  which  latter  place  connection  is 
had  with  the  Southern  Pacific  for  points  in  Texas,  New 
Mexico,  and  on  the  Pacific  slope.  Another  railroad 
which  curves  around  the  foot  of  the  lake  and  ends  at 
the  Illinois  Central  Depot  is  the  "  Big  Four,"  or  Cleve- 
land, Cincinnati,  Chicago,  and  St.  Louis  Company.  Its 
title,  made  up  of  the  four  great  cities  which  are  its  ter- 
minals, indicates  the  extensive  and  important  sections 
through  which  it  runs.  At  this  same  depot  a  large  frac- 
tion of  the  mass  of  sight-seers  from  New  York  and  New 
England  will  leave  the  cars,  because  it  is  the  terminus  of 
the  Michigan  Central  line,  or"  Niagara  Falls  Route,"  so 

96 


called  because  its  through  trains  all  stop  beside  the  great 
cataract  long  enough  to  enable  passengers  to  alight  and 
walk  to  the  edge  of  the  bluff,  looking  down  upon  the 
falls  from  one  of  the  best  points  of  view  commanding 
them.  Westward-bound  passengers  leave  the  New  York 
Central  Railroad  at  Buffalo,  are  whirled  into  Canada, 
and  thence  to  Detroit  and  across  Michigan  in  model 
trains,  with  dining  and  buffet  cars,  vestibuled  sleepers, 
and  all  the  new  conveniences.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio 
Railroad  enters  Chicago  by  the  same  lake  shore  route,  but 
has  a  terminal  station  of  its  own  near  the  Illinois  Central 
Depot.  This,  one  of  the  oldest  of  all  American  railroads, 
now  operates  more  than  2000  miles  of  road,  exclusive 
of  a  great  line  which  it  leases,  and  crosses  Western  In- 
diana, Northern  and  South-western  Ohio,  West  Virginia, 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Delaware,  and  New  Jersey,  to 
New  York.  Its  route  is  famed  for  its  picturesqueness. 

The  Dearborn  Station,  at  Polk  Street  and  Third  Ave- 
nue, is  commonly  regarded  as  one  of  the  "  sights  "  of 
Chicago.  It  does  a  heavy  business,  being  the  terminus 
of  the  Atchison,  Topeka,  and  Santa  F6,  the  Erie,  the 
Grand  Trunk,  the  Chicago  and  Eastern  Illinois,  Chicago 
and  Western  Indiana,  "The  Wabash,'' and  the  Louisville, 
New  Albany,  and  Chicago  systems.  The  "Atchison" 
operates  more  than  6400  miles  of  its  own  road.  Its  busi- 
ness is  done  in  nearly  a  dozen  States  and  several  Ter- 
ritories in  the  south  and  west,  including  Missouri,  Ar- 
kansas, Kansas,  Nebraska,  Oklahoma,  Indian  Territory, 
Colorado,  Arizona,  New  Mexico,  and  California.  It  is 
one  of  the  great  scenic  routes  of  the  country.  The  fa- 
mous "Erie  Railroad,"  or  New  York,  Lake  Erie,  and 
Western,  reaches  this  depot  via  the  Chicago  and  Erie, 
one  of  the  railroads  of  its  system  which  traverses  Indi- 

97 


ana,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  York,  through  beau- 
tiful regions,  and  has  New  York  City  for  its  terminus. 
The  Chicago  and  Eastern  Illinois,  and  Chicago  and  West- 
ern Indiana  railroads,  whose  names  describe  their  routes, 
also  run  their  trains  from  this  depot.  The  Chicago  and 
Grand  Trunk,  also  running  from  this  depot,  is  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  Grand  Trunk  system  of  Cana- 
da and  the  American  railroads.  By  its  means  all  points 
in  North-western  and  Central  Michigan,  Eastern  Canada, 
and  our  own  New  England  States  can  be  reached.  An- 
other tenant  of  the  Dearborn  Station  is  the  "  Monon 
Route,"  or  Louisville,  New  Albany,  and  Chicago,  an  en- 
terprising, well -equipped  company  operating  between 
Chicago,  Cincinnati,  Louisville,  Indianapolis,  and  the 
South.  The  famous  Wabash  Railroad,  for  St.  Louis, 
Kansas  City,  and  Texas,  is  also  a  tenant  of  the  station. 

All  the  trains  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad,  either  by 
the  Fort  Wayne  or  the  Panhandle  routes,  run  to  and 
from  the  Union  Depot  at  Canal  and  Adams  streets. 
Its  limited  trains  are  as  fast  and  as  elegant  as  they  are 
famous,  and  its  routes  to  the  great  Eastern  capitals  are 
both  direct  and  picturesque.  The  Chicago,  Burlington, 
and  Quincy  Railroad  is  another  of  the  great  arteries  of 
the  country.  It  operates  7000  miles  of  road.  It  reaches 
the  Black  Hills,  the  Wyoming  cattle  ranges,  and  many 
leading  points  in  Colorado,  Kansas,  Missouri,  Minnesota, 
Iowa,  Wisconsin,  and  Illinois.  Another  system  that  ter- 
minates at  the  Union  Depot  is  the  Chicago  and  Alton, 
for  St.  Louis,  Kansas  City,  and,  by  connections,  all  over 
the  West  and  South-west.  Also  at  this  depot  travellers 
take  the  cars  of  the  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  St.  Paul 
Railroad,  a  vast  system,  and  a  great  favorite  with  Chi- 
cago people.  It  embraces  6900  miles  of  track,  and  is  of 

98 


great  importance  in  the  North-west.  It  runs  to  Omaha, 
into  South  Dakota,  and  has  a  notable  number  of  the 
summer  resorts  of  Chicago  among  its  stopping-places. 

The  Chicago  and  North-western  Railroad  Station  is  at 
Wells  and  Kinzie  streets.  The  Chicago  and  North-west- 
ern is  one  of  the  very  great  systems  of  the  West.  It 
embraces  more  than  7000  miles  of  roads  in  Illinois,  Mich- 
igan, Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  Iowa,  the  Dakotas,  Nebras- 
ka, and  Wyoming.  The  Union  Pacific  Railroad,  with 
all  its  ramifications  in  the  Far  West,  has  this  depot  for 
one  of  its  terminals  by  a  direct  connection. 

The  Grand  Central  Station  at  Harrison  Street  and 
Fifth  Avenue  is  a  new  and  handsome  building.  The 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad,  by  a  lease  of  a  connecting  line 
between  Chicago  and  St.  Paul,  now  practically  makes 
Chicago  its  eastern  terminus,  and  this  is  its  depot.  It 
thus  connects  the  Great  Lakes  with  the  Pacific,  and  trav- 
ellers may  make  the  journey  with  all  the  modern  com- 
forts, and  over  an  imperial  reach  of  diversified  scenery. 
The  Wisconsin  Central  Railroad,  which  is  the  line  by 
which  this  railroad  to  the  west  coast  reaches  Chicago, 
does  an  extended  business  in  the  North  and  North-west, 
running  through  a  notable  timber,  mining,  and  sporting 
country. 

The  seventh  and  last  station,  though  it  is  as  conven- 
ient to  the  city  as  any,  is  the  Van  Buren  Street  Depot. 
To  and  from  this  are  run  the  trains  of  the  Lake  Shore 
and  Michigan  Southern  Railroad,  one  of  the  main  routes 
of  the  Vanderbilt  system  between  the  East  and  the  West. 
Travellers  have  their  favorites,  and  some  favor  this, 
while  others  prefer  the  Niagara  Falls  route.  The  Lake 
Shore  Road  is  direct  and  unbroken,  is  very  popular, 
passes  through  a  beautiful  and  well-developed  territory, 

99 


and  is  equipped  as  perfectly  as  the  rest  of  the  system. 
Another  tenant  of  this  depot  is  the  Chicago,  Rock  Isl- 
and, and  Pacific  Railroad,  which  is  one  of  the  pioneer 
roads  of  the  West,  and  has  grown  until  it  operates  in 
Iowa,  Missouri,  Kansas,  Indian  Territory,  Nebraska,  Col- 
orado, and,  by  connection  with  other  roads,  offers  quick 
routes  to  the  Pacific  slope,  the  middle  West,  and  the 
North-west. 

This  list  of  the  principal  roads  centring  at  Chicago 
makes  uninteresting  reading  only  to  those  who  are  fa- 
miliar with  the  railroad  systems  of  the  country,  and  to 
those  who  do  not  think  while  they  read.  The  others 
will  perceive  by  it  something  of  the  causes  of  Chicago's 
greatness,  and  how,  like  a  great  spider  in  the  heart  of  a 
web  of  steel,  she  reaches  out  in  every  direction,  making 
every  point  more  or  less  tributary  to  her. 


THE  WORLD'S    FAIR 


THE  WORLD'S  FAIR 


CHAPTER  X 
OUR   COLUMBIAN   EXPOSITION 

IF  it  were  sought  to  express  in  one  phrase  the  expec- 
tations of  those  who  are  planning  the  Columbian  Expo- 
sition of  1893  in  Chicago,  it  could  best  be  done  by  call- 
ing it  a  Venetian  spectacle.  In  all  that  governs  its  best 
effects,  as  it  will  burst  upon  the  vision  of  the  multitude, 
it  will  suggest  Venice.  Especially  at  night  will  it  call 
to  mind  what  the  poetic  comprehension  conceives  that 
Venice  might  appear  if  she  were  in  gala  attire,  and  her 
beauties,  seen  under  a  flood  of  electric  light,  were  effect- 
ively concentrated  along  two  miles  of  the  Adriatic  shore. 

Chicago  has  been  visited,  the  site  of  the  projected 
Columbian  Exposition  has  been  examined,  and  the  men 
and  women  who  have  undertaken  to  arrange  the  major 
details  of  the  Great  Fair  have  willingly  offered  their  fore- 
casts of  the  finished  work.  The  labor  of  preparation  is, 
in  point  of  time,  far  from  that  appointed  stage  of  com- 
pletion when,  in  October,  1892,  the  Columbian  anniver- 

103 


sary  is  to  be  celebrated  with  several  days  of  pageantry 
and  festivity.*  After  that  seven  months  will  be  con- 
sumed in  storing  the  buildings  with  exhibits;  and  then, 
in  May,  1893,  the  Great  Fair  will  be  opened  to  the  inspec- 
tion of  the  world. 

Even  in  New  York,  where  there  has  been  keen  disap- 
pointment over  the  failure  to  secure  the  Fair,  it  is  at  this 
writing  evident  that  the  shrewdest  business  men  have 
come  to  regard  the  projected  Exposition  as  likely  to 
prove  a  complete  triumph  of  American  enterprise  and 
skill.  Not  all  who  feel  compelled  to  sink  an  already 
weakening  local  prejudice  beneath  national  pride  are 
even  now  willing  to  predict  artistic  and  material  success 
for  Chicago's  undertaking.  But  it  is  in  Wall  Street  that 
is  heard  the  first  note  of  confidence  in  the  success  of  the 
undertaking,  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that  in 
Wall  Street  the  finer  and  more  delicate  aspects  of  the 
case  are  not  likely  to  receive  recognition,  particularly  in 
those  bulletins  in  which  financiers  seek  to  convince  their 
correspondents  that  we  are  on  the  eve  of  three  years  of 
prosperity.  The  basis  and  reasoning  in  these  bulletins 
are  that  the  movement  and  sale  of  our  enormous  food 
products  will  bring  about  the  first  year's  prosperity ; 
that  next  will  occur  a  year  distinguished  by  great  rail- 
road extension,  to  be  paid  for  out  of  the  first  year's 
transportation  earnings ;  and  that  there  will  then  follow 
a  year  given  over  to  the  profitable  task  of  entertaining 
the  foreign  visitors  to  the  World's  Fair. 

Following  this  hopeful  financial  view,  there  is  a  grow- 
ing belief  that  the  Exposition  will  not  fail  from  an  ar- 
tistic point  of  view.  The  broad  and  liberal  spirit  which 

*  This  chapter  was  written  in  the  autumn  of  1891. 
104 


MRS.   POTTER    PALMER 
(President  of  the  Board  of  Lady  Managers  of  the  Columbian  Exposition) 


led  its  projectors  to  seek  the  aid  of  the  most  distin- 
guished architects  of  the  country  is  reassuring  to  those 
who  have  doubted  whether  our  Fair  would  vindicate 
American  taste  at.  the  same  time  that  it  would  dis- 
play our  wealth  and  progress.  The  manner  in  which 
the  architects  are  encouraged  to  work  for  the  Fair  is  quite 
as  remarkable,  and  quite  as  potent  in  destroying  bor- 
rowed concern.  After  ten  men  of  admitted  excellence 
have  been  selected  from  all  over  the  country,  to  each 
has  been  paid  an  honorarium  of  $10,000.  It  is  truly  a 
royal  way  to  insure  hearty  co-operation  and  the  best 
work  of  the  best  men.  All  have  been  treated  alike,  and 
all  are  enabled  to  fortify  themselves  by  special  study 
here  and  abroad  for  the  work  they  are  undertaking. 
The  note  thus  sounded  in  the  most  influential  circles 
outside  of  the  business  world  is  in  harmony  with  the 
chord  that  has  been  struck  in  Wall  Street.  There  will 
not  long  remain  among  well-informed  persons  a  trace  of 
the  former  belief  that  Chicago  will  too  strongly  impress 
her  individuality  upon  the  Fair,  or  of  the  dying  doubt 
that  it  will  be  fully  and  grandly  national  in  its  aims  and 
accomplishments. 

Once  again  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  American 
affairs  are  influenced  by  public  opinion  is  in  this  matter 
made  evident.  Amid  the  clamor  attending  the  compe- 
tition among  large  cities  which  wished  to  possess  the 
Fair  many  angry  and  rude  aspersions  have  been  cast 
upon  Chicago's  fitness  for  the  honor  to  which  she  as- 
pired. It  is  now  evident  that  in  a  considerable  degree 
the  triumphs  of  the  managers  of  the  exhibition  are  due 
to  the  rancor  that  preceded  and  even  followed  the  se- 
lection of  Chicago  as  the  exposition  city.  These  shrewd 
officials  may  be  in  some  measure  unconscious  of  the  fact, 

105 


yet,  in  many  remarks  and  arguments,  they  make  it  evi- 
dent to  me  that  in  taking  hold  of  the  gigantic  enterprise 
they  bind  themselves  to  disappoint  their  rivals.  They 
are  resolved  to  prove  false  the  prediction  that  Chicago 
would  belittle  her  opportunity  by  seeking  to  make  only 
local  capital,  and  would  shock  the  cultivated  taste  of 
the  nation  by  producing  a  crude  and  clumsy  fair,  lack- 
ing those  elegances  and  luxurious  attributes  of  ornament 
and  finish  which  rendered  the  last  Paris  Exposition  the 
wonder  of  the  civilized  world.  I  am  not  likely  to  be 
contradicted  if  I  assert  that  the  unkindly  comparisons 
into  which  the  Paris  Fair  of  1889  was  constantly  forced 
resulted  in  the  establishment  «of  the  Parisian  standard 
as  the  model  that  Chicago  was  to  surpass  at  all  hazards. 
To  say  this  is  to  ascribe  to  Chicago  qualities  of  which 
any  city  might  be  proud,  for  in  her  conduct  she  has 
shown  that  true  and  wholesome  pride  which  is  never 
found  apart  from  modesty,  and  with  these  traits  she  has 
exhibited  a  clear  consciousness  of  her  strength  to  re- 
press every  weakness  with  which  she  has  been  unfairly 
charged. 

At  the  moment  when  this  is  being  prepared  for  the 
press,  the  greater  part  of  the  Fair  tract  in  Jackson  Park 
is  one-third  enclosed  by  the  waters  of  Lake  Michigan 
and  two-thirds  by  a  tall  fence  six  miles  in  length.  With- 
in that  enclosure  is  to  be  witnessed  a  scene  of  extraor- 
dinary activity.  Close  at  hand,  as  one  approaches  the 
site  from  the  city,  the  second  story  of  the  Woman's 
Building  already  rises  above  the  greenery,  and  as  far  as 
the  eye  can  comprehend  the  scene  the  view  is  dotted 
with  other  white  forests  and  thickets  of  new  timber, 
marking  the  foundations  and  framework  of  the  great 
buildings  that  the  Commissioners  are  to  erect  as  the 

106 


nucleus  and  glory  of  the  Fair.  Even  through  the  dis- 
order of  such  a  field,  wherein  thousands  of  laborers  and 
carpenters  are  at  work,  and  where  the  surface  of  the 
ground  is  receiving  no  care,  it  is  apparent  that  the  site 
is  well  chosen,  and  that  the  grounds  are  capable  of  con- 
version into  the  unique  and  really  extraordinary  park 
of  palaces  which  the  managers  have  planned. 

It  was  a  marsh  when  work  upon  it  was  begun,  a  sop- 
ping combination  of  low  lands,  water,  and  hummocks ; 
but  the  once  uncertain  beach  is  already  a  beautiful 
slope  of  neatly-ordered  stone-work  edged  with  sand,  and 
capped  by  a  broad  and  elegant  esplanade  of  white  con- 
crete, forming  as  noble  a  water-side  way  as  can  be  pict- 
ured by  the  mind.  Beyond  this  costly  promenade  the 
field  is  divided  into  promontories  and  islands,  among 
which  have  been  led  beautiful  sheets  of  water,  in  the 
form  of  lagoons,  canals,  basins,  and  straits.  It  is  the 
water  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  has  the  translucent  quality 
of  pure  crystal. 

This,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  the  character  of  the 
site  for  the  ten  or  eleven  principal  buildings  to  be  erected 
by  the  Commission  in  what  is  now  the  distant  part  of 
Jackson  Park.  But  adjoining  this  is  the  older  portion 
of  the  park,  long  ago  in  use  as  a  finished  part  of  the  su- 
perb park  system  of  Chicago.  A  large  pond  embel- 
lishes this  section,  and  upon  the  undulating  ground 
around  the  pool  are  meadows,  groves,  and  winding  roads. 
This  land  is  to  form  the  site  of  the  buildings  of  those 
foreign  governments  that  are  to  participate  in  the  Expo- 
sition. Mexico  has  already  selected  the  foremost  plat 
close  against  the  new  domain  upon  which  the  Exposi- 
tion builders  are  now  busy.  The  two  sections  are  to  be 
thrown  together,  the  great  pond  is  to  be  connected  with 

107 


the  lagoon  system  of  the  Fair  Grounds,  and  the  finished 
site  will  include  both  grounds. 

Standing  upon  the  broad,  trim,  artificial  beach  beside 
the  blue  ancK*green  expanse  of  Lake  Michigan,  I  found 
it  difficult  to  free"  what  I  saw  from  what,  after  a  week's 
study  of  the  official  plans,  I  knew  must  soon  take  the 
place  of  the  disojrder  around  me.  After  such  a  study, 
and  with  some  of  the  officials  of  the  Exposition  discuss- 
ing the  future  in*rny  hearing,  it  was  easy  to  enjoy  a  pro- 
phetic view  of  the.^great  park  as  it  ^ould  appear  after 
the  Exposition  opened — almost  as  easy  to  comprehend 
and  far  more  interesting  than  the  actual  scene.  Already 
the  unfinished  model  of  a  modern  cruiser  lay  before  me 
at  the  edge  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  afar  off  the  founda- 
tions of  the  almost  fairy-like  Casino  Pier  fretted  the  sur- 
face of  the  great  lake.  I  fancied  myself  on  a  barge  ap- 
proaching the  gaudy  wharf.  The  mind's  eye  showed 
the  pier  joining  the  long  expanse  of  artificial  beach  at  a 
point  in  front  of  a  beautiful  emerald  lagoon  that  lay  be- 
tween the  Palace  of  Agriculture  and  the  almost  incon- 
ceivably vast  building  for  Manufactures  and  Liberal 
Arts.  Rising  from  the  lagoon  was  the  colossal  yet 
graceful  Statue  of  the  Republic,  seen  through  the  spaces 
of  an  impressive  line  of  separate  granite  columns,  whose 
capitals  will  bear  figures  displaying  the  arms  of  the 
States. 

The  great  building  showed  a  general  tone  of  darkened 
ivory  or  slightly  smoked  meerschaum,  an  effect  produced 
by  the  "staff"  or  stucco  composition  with  which  the  ex- 
terior walls  are  to  be  covered.  All  the  exterior  wralls  of 
all  the  buildings  will  be  of  this  material,  and  the  build- 
ings themselves  will  therefore  be  rather  architectural 
models  than  durable  structures.  Wherever  great  arches 

108 


support  heavy  roofs  or  span  wide  openings  beUveen 
walls,  the  trusses  will  be  of  iron,  but  in  most  cases  the 

4f 

walls  or  frames  will  be  of  timber. 

But  though  the  general  tone  in  this  prophetic  view  of 
the  buildings  is  that  of  enriched  ivory,  each  view  of 
every  structure  presents  a  more  or  less  brilliant  array  of 
colors,  the  differing  hues  being  seen  wherever  the  walls 
are  broken,  as  in  the  arcades,  porticos,  corridors,  pavil- 
ions, and  galleries,  which^elieve  and  ornament  most 
of  the  edifices.  Eor  instance,  while  still  looking  down 
the  lagoon  that  is  ornamented  by  Mr.  Atwood's  chef- 
d'oeuvre  of  statues  and  columns,  the  eye  is  taken  cap- 
tive by  the  brilliant  golden  dome  of  the  Administration 
Building.  Statuary,  banners,  gorgeous  panels,  medal- 
lions, and  colonnades,  all  harmoniously  blended,  make 
this  the  most  striking  and  one  of  the  most  admired  of 
the  works  of  the  architects.  Richard  M.  Hunt,  of  New 
York,  is  its  designer. 

The  beautiful  waters  of  the  system  of  lagoons  pass 
every  one  of  the  main  buildings,  and  all  but  surround 
some  of  them.  On  their  surfaces  all  the  palaces  will  be 
reflected,  and  at  night  the  water  will  duplicate  the  full 
brilliancy  of  this,  the  second  of  the  world's  expositions 
which  electricity  has  rendered  viewable  after  dark.  The 
water  itself,  by-the-way,  will  be  shot  with  brilliant  light 
by  scores  of  electric  lamps  placed  around  its  borders. 
A  hundred  gondolas  brought  from  Venice  will  loaf  lux- 
uriously along  these  liquid  avenues,  to  be  distanced  con- 
temptuously by  a  myriad  of  swift  launches.  Their  mo- 
tions on  the  water's  surface  will  but  weakly  imitate  the 
fast-gliding  artificial  denizens  of  the  deep  which  skilled 
electricians  plan  to  send  hither  and  thither  by  means  of 
delicate  machinery  urged  by  power  stored  in  the  bodies 

109 


of  the  toys.  At  night,  when  the  eyes  of  these  subma- 
rine monsters  and  beauties  are  lighted  by  electricity, 
they  will  cidd  a  strange  feature  to  the  general  spectacle. 

Beside  the  gorgeous  Administration  Building,  on  the 
one  hand,  is  the  Machinery  Hall,  designed  by  Messrs. 
'Peabody  &  Stearns,  of  Boston.  It  is  a  beautiful  and 
imposing  palace,  and  is  connected  artistically  with  the 
Building  for  Agriculture  by  means  of  a  colonnade  sur- 
rounding one  end  of  a  gre§t  canal.  Messrs.  McKim, 
Mead  &  White,  of  New  York,  designed  the  Agricult- 
ural Building.  These  two  great  houses  for  agriculture 
and  machinery  are  each  above  800  feet  long,  and  the 
Machinery  Building  has  an  annex  550  feet  in  length,  so 
that  the  roofs  of  these  two  buildings  and  their  connec- 
tions cover  an  unbroken  length  of  2400  feet.  The  Ma- 
chinery Building  will  be  constructed  as  if  three  great 
railroad  depots  or  train  sheds  were  placed  side  by  side, 
and  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  Columbian  Corporation  to 
sell  these  parts  for  such  uses  after  the  Fair  closes. 
The  managers  expect  to  realize  a  salvage  of  at  least 
$3,000,000  on  the  material  used  in  the  various  struct- 
ures, and  they  boast  that  they  have  already  saved 
$1,000,000  on  what  was  considered  a  careful  preliminary 
estimate  of  the  cost  of  the  buildings. 

But  to  return  to  the  view.  Down  the  canal  that 
half  divides  these  buildings  the  Electricity  and  Mining 
houses  are  reached.  The  Electric  Building  (designed 
by  Messrs.  Van  Brunt  &  Howe,  of  Kansas  City)  is  most 
unique,  and  besides  being  decorated  by  many  towers, 
has  a  grand  entrance  that  rises  a  story  higher  than  the 
rest  of  the  building,  and  that,  when  illuminated  at  night, 
will  seem  ablaze  with  light  as  if  it  were  a  colossal  lan- 
tern. Beyond  this  building  is  the  principal  lagoon, 


from  whose  surface  rises  what  is  known  as  the  Wooded 
Island.  This  island  is  many  acres  in  extent,  and  is  de- 
signed to  remain  bare  of  almost  everything  but  flowers, 
trees,  and  paths,  in  order  that  it  may  furnish  through- 
out the  Exposition  a.  cool  and  alluring  retreat  for  tired 
visitors.  Absolute  bareness  will  be  prevented  by  the 
presence  of  a  beautiful  temple  put  up  by  the  Japanese. 

Behind  this  great  lagoon  are  the  Transportation,  Hor- 
ticultural, and  Woman's  buildings,  at  the  farther  end  is 
the  Illinois  Building,  and  on  the  side  between  the  lagoon 
and  Lake  Michigan  are  the  Fisheries  and  United  States 
Government  buildings,  all  costly,  extensive,  and  elabo- 
rate examples  of  the  skill  of  American  architects.  One 
building  that  has  not  yet  been  mentioned  receives,  per- 
haps, the  highest  praise.  It  is  the  Gallery  of  Fine  Arts, 
and  will  stand  beyond  the  lake  that  is  now  in  the  old 
part  of  Jackson  Park.  Its  designer  is^Mr.  C.  B.  Atwood, 
of  New  York. 

Beyond  the  Fine  Arts  Gallery,  in  the  older  part  of 
Jackson  Park,  and  gathered  amid  its  groves  and  around 
its  picturesque  lake,  are  to  be  the  seats  of  the  foreign 
governments  that  participate  in  the  Fair.  The  domes 
and  the  towers  of  these  still  undetermined  buildings  \yill 
doubtless  reach  far  down  what  is  called  Midway  Plai- 
sance,  a  parkway  connecting  Washington  and  Jackson 
parks.  Down  this  plaisance,  now  a  broad  bowery  bou- 
levard, will  also  be  gathered  many  of  the  lesser  attrac- 
tions of  the  Fair,  not  all  of  them  wholly  disconnected 
with  private  enterprise  or  the  showman's  profession. 

Thus  has  been  arranged  the  greatest  of  world's  expo- 
sitions. The  field  laid  out  embraces  640  acres,  and  400 
acres  adjoining  this-  are  available  if  needed.  The  floor 
space  already  provided  for  is  equal  to  400  acres,  or  more, 

M  III 


it  is  said,  than  the  entire  ground  utilized  in  any  other 
exposition.  The  park  is  seven  miles  from  the  Chicago 
City  Hall,  but  it  is  to  be  connected  with  the  city  by  all 
of  the  great  steam  railroads  that  enter  Chicago,  by  the 
cable-car  lines  and  stages,  by  the  lake  boats,  and  by  an 
elevated  railroad  now  nearly  constructed.  Within  the 
Exposition  Grounds  connection  between  the  various 
points  of  interest  may  be  had  both  by  land  and  water — 
by  donkey-back,  jinrikisha,  'bus,  gondola,  launch  or  skiff, 
and  by  a  marvellous  overhead  travelling  sidewalk. 

Apparently  the  entire  distribution  of  leadership  and 
command  has  been  characterized  by  as  liberal  a  spirit 
as  that  which  led  Mr.  D.  H.  Burnham,  of  Chicago,  the 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Construction,  to  cluster  the  archi- 
tectural geniuses  of  the  country  around  him  as  he  did. 
The  architects  in  question  are:  Richard  M.  Hunt,  of 
New  York  ;  W.  L.JB.  Jenny,  of  Chicago  ;  McKim,  Mead 
&  White,  of  New  York ;  Adler  &  Sullivan,  of  Chicago ; 
George  B.  Post,  of  New  York ;  Henry  Ives  Cobb,  of 
Chicago ;  Burling  &  Whitehouse,  of  Chicago ;  Peabody 
&  Stearns,  of  Boston ;  S.  S.  Beman,  of  Chicago ;  and 
Van  Brunt  &  Howe,  of  Kansas  City. 

In  the  same  spirit  and  towards  the  same  end  of  con- 
ducting a  thoroughly  national  enterprise,  Director-gen- 
eral George  R.  Davis  has  divided  his  work  into  fifteen 
branches,  constituted  each  branch  a  department,  and 
then  sought  men  of  national  fame  and  acknowledged 
ability  to  take  charge  of  these  divisions.  The  Bureau 
of  Agriculture  has  been  put  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  W.  I. 
Buchanan,  a  remarkable  organizer  and  student  of  the 
interests  of  the  agricultural  class,  and  hero  of  the  fa- 
mous Sioux  City  Corn  Palace  Exhibition.  His  plans  for 
the  agricultural  exhibit  are  exceedingly  broad,  and  are 


perfected  to  the  minutest  detail,  so  that  the  Western 
men  at  least  feel  certain  that  his  will  be  as  complete  a 
display  as  can  possibly  be  made. 

The  Department  of  Ethnology  is  in  charge  of  Pro- 
fessor F.  W.  Putnam,  of  Harvard,  who  has  sent  to  South 
America  naval  and  military  officers,  many  of  whom  are 
specialists  outside  of  their  professions,  and  whose  busi- 
ness it  will  be  to  scour  South  America  to  secure  a  rep- 
resentative exhibit.  The  past  and  present  methods  of 
living  in  every  South  American  country  are  to  be  illus- 
trated realistically  by  models  provided  by  the  gentle- 
men who  have  selected  trvs  objects  after  consulting 
well-informed  persons  from  those  countries.  The  rep- 
resentation of  lake  dwellings  from  Venezuela  is  spoken 
of  as  likely  to  be  more  marvellous  than  the  examples 
of  the  same  study  that  will  be  sent  here  from  Europe. 
The  results  from  Patagonia,  Alaska,  Greenland,  Finland, 
and  Iceland  will  all  be  notable.  The  bureau  has  in 
Africa  an  officer  of  the  navy  who  is  in  correspondence 
with  Tippu-Tib  for  fifteen  pygmies. 

The  Department  of  Fish  and  Fisheries  is  in  charge  of 
Captain  J.  W.  Collins,  of  the  United  States  Commission. 
He  will  exhibit  an  aquarium  stocked  with  both  salt  and 
fresh  water  fish,  and  will  present  casts  of  all  the  known 
species  of  fish,  together  with  a  valuable  presentation  of 
the  fauna  and  flora  of  the  ocean.  He  will  also  exhibit 
the  different  modes  of  and  appliances  for  fishing,  both 
ancient  and  modern.  Either  here  or  elsewhere  in  the 
Fair  will  be  given  graphic  expositions  of  the  work  at  the 
seal-fisheries  of  Alaska. 

The  Department  of  Mines  and  Mining  is  in  charge  of 
Mr.  F.  J.  V.  Skiff",  of  Colorado,  a  man  thoroughly  famil- 
iar with  the  mining  business,  who  proposes  to  have  the 

"3 


department  illustrated  by  working- mines  if  possible. 
This  is  the  first  international  exhibition  in  which  a  sep- 
arate building  has  been  provided  for  this  industry. 

The  Department  of  Liberal  Arts,  comprehending  a 
greater  variety  of  exhibits  than  any  other  department, 
is  in  charge  of  Professor  S.  H.  Peabody.  It  was  offered 
to  Professor  John  Oilman,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
but  he  was  unable  to  accept  the  trust.  The  Depart- 
ment of  Machinery  is  in  charge  of  Mr.  L.  W.  Robinson, 
who  was  first  assistant  in  charge  of  the  Machinery  Hall 
at  the  Philadelphia  Exposition.  The  Columbian  Fair 
will  gain  distinction  from  having  at  its  service  steam  of 
the  power  of  24,000  horses.  It  is  said  that  the  greatest 
of  the  engines  which  will  be  shown  will  dwarf  the  great 
Corliss  machine  exhibited  in  Philadelphia  in  1876. 

The  Department  of  Publicity  and  Promotion  is  under 
the  chieftainship  of  Major  Moses  P.  Handy,  the  distin- 
guished journalist.  There  was  never  such  a  depart- 
ment in  any  other  exposition.  There  have  been  press 
bureaus,  but  the  press  work  of  this  Exposition  is  simply 
a  branch  of  the  work  of  promotion  which  is  carried  on 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  and,  as  elaborated  by  Major 
Handy,  is  so  formidable  that  his  mailing  department 
alone  ranks  by  the  bulk  of  its  business  with  some  of  the 
most  important  second-class  post-offices  of  the  country. 

The  Department  of  Fine  Arts  is  in  charge  of  Mr.  Hal- 
sey  C.  Ives,  of  Missouri,  who  built  up  the  great  art 
school  in  St.  Louis.  He  began  work  by  journeying 
abroad,  visiting  every  country  in  Europe,  talking  with 
artists,  inspecting  famed  galleries,  and  arranging  for  the 
exhibition  of  pictures  by  loan  and  otherwise.  While  in 
Paris  Major  Handy  met  M.  Prust,  who  had  charge  of  the 
art  department  of  the  Paris  Exposition,  and  who  gave 

114 


his  word  that  France,  which  can  contribute  so  much 
towards  a  successful  art  display,  will  do  its  best  for  this 
one.  Sir  Philip  Cunliffe-Owen  and  Sir  Henry  Wood, 
Secretary  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Art,  assured  Major 
Handy  that  England  does  not  propose  to  be  eclipsed. 
The  English  artists  now  realize,  that  which  the  French 
years  ago  discovered,  that  America  has  become  the 
greatest  and  most  profitable  field  for  the  disposal  of  the 
best  products  of  the  Old  World  studios. 

In  addition  to  the  half-million-dollar  Art  Building  on 
the  Fair  Grounds,  it  is  proposed,  aside  from  the  Exposi- 
tion entirely,  to  build  in  Chicago  a  noble  and  perma- 
nent art  palace.  The  money  has  been  raised,  and  those 
concerned  in  the  project  hope  to  secure  for  the  new 
museum  many  of  the  finest  works  exhibited  at  the  Ex- 
position. 

Mr.  James  W.  Allison,  of  Ohio,  is  in  charge  of  the 
Department  of  Manufactures.  He  is  noted  for  having 
conducted  in  Cincinnati  the  most  successful  local  expo- 
sition in  this  country.  His  department  and  the  depart- 
ments of  Ethnology  and  the  Liberal  Arts  will  exhibit 
in  the  huge  Palace  of  Manufactures. 

In  view  of  the  extraordinary  competition  among  the 
great  electrical  combinations,  it  was  a  delicate  and  diffi- 
cult task  to  secure  for  chief  of  the  Electrical  Department 
a  person  not  connected  with  any  interest,  yet  acceptable 
to  all.  Professor  J.  P.  Barrett,  of  Nevada,  was  selected, 
and  the  highest  hopes  are  based  on  the  exhibition  he 
will  arrange.  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Edison  is  greatly  interest- 
ed in  this  department,  and  will  aid  the  work  in  it  in 
other  ways  than  by  contributing  to  it  his  newest  marvel, 
upon  the  completion  of  which  he  is  engaged.  It  is 
promised  that  many  of  the  wonderful  features  of  the  re- 


cent  Electrical  Exposition  of  Frankfort  will  form  part 
of  our  Exposition. 

The  Department  of  Horticulture  is  in  charge  of  Pro- 
fessor J.  M.  Samuels,  of  Kentucky;  and  that  of  Flori- 
culture is  headed  by  Mr.  John  Thorpe,  of  New  York. 
Already  the  growth  of  plants  for  the  great  exhibition  is 
under  way  in  a  house  on  the  Midway  Plaisance.  Ten 
acres  on  Wooded  Island  will  be  planted  with  flowers, 
and  the  entire  out -door  display  will  include  wild  and 
aquatic  flowers  as  well  as  the  cultivated  varieties.  The 
Government  exhibits  will  be  uncommonly  fine,  and  are 
to  be  in  charge  of  officers  appointed  by  the  President. 
The  naval  display,  aboard  a  brick  model  of  a  cruiser, 
will  be  exceptionally  fine — the  exhibition  being  shown 
in  the  space  which  on  a  real  ship  would  be  given  up  to 
machinery  and  arms.  The  Post-office  Department  ex- 
hibit will  show  the  progress  of  the  postal  system,  espe- 
cially in  the  methods  of  transporting  and  distributing 
mail.  It  will  include  an  illustrated  history  of  our  post- 
age-stamps. England  will  send  illustrations  of  her  post- 
al department  in  connection  with  the  working  of  the 
postal  telegraph  system.  Mr.  Willard  A.  Smith,  Chief 
of- the  Bureau  of  Transportation,  will  make  a  collection 
demonstrating  the  development  of  the  methods  of  traffic 
and  travel  from  the  use  of  the  goat-cart  and  the  dugout 
to  that  of  the  hotel  car  and  transatlantic  flyers  of  to- 
day. Mr.  Walker  Fearn,  of  Louisiana,  head  of  the  De- 
partment of  Foreign  Affairs,  was  our  Minister  to  Greece 
under  President  Cleveland.  His  bureau  will  grow  more 
and  more  useful  and  busy  as  it  follows  and  directs  the 
plans  of  the  foreign  governments  that  will  join  in  the 
display. 

Uncommon  interest  has  from  the  beginning  of  the 

116 


work  been  attracted  to  the  Woman's  Department,  the 
most  notable  feature  of  the  Great  Fair.  It  was  fortu- 
nately placed  under  the  charge  of  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer. 
She  is  a  society  leader  in  Chicago,  where  it  is  proudly 
boasted  that  she  would  grace  any  court.  She  is  the 
possessor  of  great  wealth,  and  was  wholly  unacquainted 
with  public  affairs  before  she  undertook  this  charge,  and 
yet  she  has  taken  hold  of  the  Woman's  Department  as 
of  something  by  the  conduct  of  which  she  may  crown 
her  life,  and  in  doing  so  has  shown  the  most  marked 
executive  ability.  In  choosing  a  plan  for  its  building, 
the  Woman's  Department  has  copied  one  of  the  most 
admirable  designs  made  for  the  Exposition.  The  archi- 
tect who  drew  the  design  is  Miss  Sophia  G.  Hayden,  of 
Boston.  Mrs.  Palmer  has  planned  a  treasury  of  objects 
illustrative  of  woman's  work.  The  exhibit  will  embrace 
a  model  kitchen,  a  modern  creche,  a  kindergarten  and 
hospital  with  trained  nurses,  a  notable  exhibition  of 
books  written  by  women,  periodicals  edited  and  pub- 
lished by  women,  and,  most  interesting  of  all,  the  me- 
chanical inventions  of  women.  It  is  curious  to  read  in 
Western  papers  that  Mrs.  Palmer  is  of  Southern  birth 
and  the  wife  of  a  Democrat.  The  reason  for  so  unex- 
pected a  reference  to  a  lady  lies  in  the  fact  that  original- 
ly it  had  been  charged  that  the  Columbian  Exposition 
was  to  be  a  partisan  Republican  institution.  It  is  un- 
necessary to  further  the  discussion  here.  The  chiefs  of 
the  two  governing  bodies — the  National  and  State  di- 
rectories— are  men  of  both  parties,  and  the  work  of  plan- 
ning and  perfecting  the  Exposition  has  avowedly  and 
apparently  been  apportioned  to  men  chosen  for  their 
experience  and  ability,  regardless  of  their  political  faith. 
The  long  list  of  officials  composing  both  the  national 

"7 


committee  and  the  Illinois  organization  has  been  print- 
ed many  times.  The  President  of  the  Government  Com- 
mission is  Senator  Thomas  W.  Palmer,  of  Michigan  ;  the 
secretary  is  Mr.  John  T.  Dickinson,  of  Texas ;  and  the 
director-general,  by  far  the  most  active  man  on  either 
board,  is  General  George  R.  Davis,  of  Illinois.  The  pres- 
ident of  the  local  or  Illinois  delegation  is  Mr.  William 
T.  Baker,  who  is  also  President  of  the  Chicago  Board  of 
Trade;  Mr.  Thomas  B.  Bryan  is  vice-president  of  the  Il- 
linois organization ;  the  treasurer  is  Anthony  F.  See- 
berger;  and  the  auditor  is  William  K.  Ackerman. 

Over  in  what  has  long  been  an  important  part  of  Jack- 
son Park,  on  the  lake  front,  but  nearer  to  the  city  than 
where  the  greater  buildings  are  to  be  located,  is  the 
ground  set  apart  for  the  headquarters  of  foreign  coun- 
tries. Exposition  officials  are  in  the  habit  of  calculating 
that  the  other  countries  of  the  globe  will  add  about 
$3,000,000  to  the  amount  expended  at  the  Fair.  If  the 
foreigners  spend  $3,000,000,  and  the  various  States  of 
the  Union  lay  out  $5,000,000,  as  they  are  expected  to 
do,  the  total  expenditure  for  the  Fair  will  amount  to 
$26,000,000. 

It  is  evident  that  there  will  be  massed  together  in  the 
foreign  quarter  a  very  gaudy,  impressive,  and  unfamiliar 
jumble  of  picturesque  and  peculiar  structures,  contrast- 
ing strangely  with  the  stately  group  of  huge  palaces  on 
the  main  grounds.  We  know  that  with  part  of  Mexico's 
$750,000  she  will  erect  a  fac-simile  of  an  Aztec  palace ; 
Guatemala  will  put  up,  out  of  her  $120,000,  a  model  of 
a  palace  that  distinguishes  her  ruined  City  of  Antigua ; 
Colombia,  which  has  appropriated  $100,000,  will  repro- 
duce her  splendid  Capitol ;  Ecuador,  which  has  allotted 
$125,000,  for  all  her  expenses,  will  again  show,  as  she 

118 


did  in  Paris,  a  copy  of  her  Temple  of  the  Sun  ;  Brazil 
will  make  a  magnificent  contribution,  at  a  cost  of  at  least 
$500,000.  Around  the  beautiful  palace  which  she  will 
erect  will  be  gathered  lesser  buildings  illustrative  of  the 
habits  and  industries  .of  her  people — huts  with  native 
inhabitants,  a  sugar -mill,  and  coffee -planter's  outfit. 
Glimpses  of  the  rubber  industry  will  be  among  the  ad- 
ditional exhibits.  Brazil's  most  famous  band  will  be 
sent  here  also,  perhaps  to  compete  with  the  band  of  the 
Coldstream  Guards  of  England,  and  certainly  to  blend 
its  melody  with  that  of  the  great  orchestra  which  Theo- 
dore Thomas  is  to  lead,  and  with  the  music  of  the  thou- 
sands of  choral  singers  to  be  trained  by  Professor  Tom- 
lins.  Almost  all  the  South  American  countries,  even 
the  smallest,  and  the  colonial  islands  off  the  Atlantic 
coast,  have  signified  their  intention  to  be  represented 
at  the  Fair. 

It  is  becoming  more  and  more  apparent  that  what 
seemed  to  be  an  unwarranted  liberality  in  the  projected 
extent  of  the  Fair  Grounds  will  still  leave  the  Commission 
hampered  for  room.  The  battle  will  be  to  economize 
space,  and  already  skirmishes  to  protect  the  necessary 
beauty-spots,  like  the  Wooded  Island,  are  of  daily  oc- 
currence. The  Europeans,  who  never  held  an  exposi- 
tion covering  half  the  area  of  this  one,  are  insisting  upon 
allotments  that  would  have  been  out  of  the  question  at 
Paris  or  Vienna.  England  and  Germany,  for  instance, 
will  not  be  satisfied  with  less  than  120,000  square  feet 
of  ground.  It  is  the  enthusiasm  of  their  commissioners 
which  leads  to  this  demand,  and  they  assert  that  the 
same  hearty  interest  in  our  Fair  will  result  in  the  grand- 
est exhibitions  their  countries  have  ever  made.  It  is 
perfectly  apparent  that  France  will  not  ask  a  jot  less 

119 


than  these  neighbors.  England's  main  building  will  be 
a  reproduction  of  some  notable  manor-house,  like  Hat- 
field  (Lord  Salisbury's  country  place),  or  Sandringham, 
perhaps.  The  idea  will  be  to  illustrate  typical  English 
architecture.  A  model  English  garden  will  be  attached 
to  the  great  house,  and  a  fine  feature  of  the  building 
will  be  a  spacious  hall  filled  with  armor  and  hung  with 
pictures,  and  to  be  used  for  receptions  and  ceremonial 
purposes.  England  will  appropriate  £27,000  for  her 
use  at  the  Exposition.  Herr  Wermuth,  the  German 
commissioner,  who  came  to  Chicago  in  September  last 
with  Sir  Henry  Wood,  of  England,  was  less  explicit  with 
regard  to  Germany's  intentions.  He  said  he  thought 
his  nation  would  select  for  its  headquarters  some  typical 
ancient  German  building;  and  he  added,  after  speaking 
enthusiastically  of  the  Exposition  Grounds  and  Build- 
ings, that  ours  would  be  the  grandest  fair  ever  held,  and 
that  Germany  would  do  its  share  towards  the  achieve- 
ment of  that  degree  of  success. 

It  is  too  early  to  discuss  more  fully  the  part  that  the 
foreign  governments  will  take  in  the  Exposition.  This 
is  peculiarly  disappointing,  because  there  seems  no 
doubt  that  many  great  countries  will  surpass  all  their 
former  efforts  at  international  exhibitions.  Major  Moses 
P.  Handy,  one  of  the  Commissioners  who  went  abroad 
last  winter,  says  that  their  errand  proved  most  wise  and 
fruitful.  It  was  thought  advisable  for  some  of  the  offi- 
cials of  the  Fair  to  put  themselves  in  evidence  in  the  old 
countries  to  answer  questions,  and  to  induce  the  more 
tardy  governments  to  move  towards  participation  in 
the  display.  In  most  cases  it  was  only  necessary  to  see 
the  heads  of  such  governments,  but  in  Switzerland  the 
rule  was  reversed,  and  there  popular  sympathy  with  the 


project  needed  to  be  aroused  by  public  meetings.  Switz- 
erland was  nearer  to  having  done  nothing  than  any 
other  country,  but  owing  to  the  formal  visit  of  the  Com- 
missioners the  ancient  republic  is  now  earnestly  inter- 
ested in  making  a  praiseworthy  appearance  at  Chicago. 
In  the  other  cases  the  rule  was  to  see  the  chiefs  of  each 
government,  and  to  urge  that  a  more  than  perfunctory 
interest  be  taken  in  the  project.  In  Sweden  and  Den- 
mark the  kings  were  seen,  but  in  the  majority  of  the 
countries  visited  our  ministers  presented  the  visitors  to 
the  foreign  ministers  of  each  court,  and  by  these  states- 
men the  Americans  were  introduced  to  those  cabinet 
officials  in  whose  departments  the  matter  came.  The 
leading  statesmen  of  England,  France,  Germany,  Switz- 
erland, Holland,  Belgium,  Austria,  Norway,  Sweden, 
Denmark,  and  Russia  were  thus  induced  to  interest  them- 
selves in  our  Fair.  In  each  country  great  success  attend- 
ed the  visit  of  the  Commissioners. 

It  is  known  that  there  will  be  sent  from  India  all  that 
is  needed  to  picture  life  in  an  East  Indian  village.  Tur- 
key, reluctant  to  bear  the  expense  herself,  has  authorized 
private  individuals  to  construct  a  realistic  reproduction 
of  a  Turkish  street,  probably  of  shops,  and  showing  not 
only  the  wares  peculiar  to  the  country,  but  her  mechan- 
ics, artisans,  and  professional  entertainers.  Egypt  will 
show  a  more  complete  and  picturesque  reflex  of  the 
life  of  her  people  than  that  which  was  demonstrated  by 
the  famous  Rue  de  Caire  in  the  Paris  Exposition.  This 
exhibit  will  also  take  the  form  of  a  street.  It  will  be 
400  feet  long,  and  lined  with  shops,  cafes,  dwellings,  and 
amusement  halls.  It  will  be  peopled  with  donkey-driv- 
ers, Egyptian  serving-maids,  dancing-girls,  jugglers,  mer- 
chants, women,  and  children.  Japan  will  spend  $500,000 


in  reproducing  what  is  most  picturesque  and  effective 
in  her  architecture  and  in  scenes  from  her  home  life ; 
while  China,  exhibiting  with  governmental  sanction  for 
the  first  time,  will  add  a  notable  feature  of  the  Fair. 
Persia  also  promises  what  will  prove  a  glistening  drop 
in  the  colossal  bucket.  It  is  whispered  that  from  many 
of  these  foreign' countries  royalty  itself  will  come  in 
numbers  and  consequence  greater  than  ever  distinguished 
any  universal  exhibition  since  the  last  effort  of  imperial 
France.  A  dozen  kingly  and  princely  visitors  are  talked 
of  as  our  possible  guests.  All  and  more — or  none  at  all 
— may  come.  No  one  can  speak  one  whit  more  posi- 
tively upon  the  subject.  It  is  even  possible  that  some 
of  the  things  that  are  here  set  down  as  fixed  and  certain 
attractions  of  the  Exposition  will  be  changed  or  omitted. 
It  is  certain  that  a  host  of  inviting  features,  not  yet 
known  even  to  the  managers,  will  be  added  to  those 
here  set  forth.  Allowance  should  be  made  by  the  read- 
er for  the  uncertainties  of  so  long  a  look  ahead. 

Our  Territories  are  nerved  to  make  the  most  of  their 
opportunity.  The  most  important  Territorial  contribu- 
tions will  be  in  the  line  of  mining  and  mineralogy,  but 
this  may  not  be  the  most  generally  interesting.  The  Ter- 
ritorial delegates  will  meet  this  exposition  of  wonders  at 
the  wonder  capital  in  the  spirit  that  is  to  produce  its 
most  amazing  results.  Mr.  Richard  Mansfield  White, 
who  is  a  son  of  the  late  Richard  Grant  White,  told  me 
when  he  was  in  Chicago  as  Commissioner  from  New  Mex- 
ico that  his  Territory  will  endeavor  to  emphasize  the  fact 
that  its  capital,  Santa  Fe,  and  not  San  Augustine,  Florida, 
is  the  oldest  city  in  the  country.  He  says  that  "  when 
the  conquistadores  entered  New  Mexico  they  found  in 
Santa  Fe  a  city  already  existent,  and  already  so  ancient, 


as  to  have  been  for  hundreds  of  years  a  town  of  the 
Aztecs,  or  Toltecs,  or  whatever  people  we  like  to  call 
those  who  had  a  civilization  of  their  own  centuries  be- 
fore Europeans  touched  their  soil."  The  so-called  pal- 
ace of  Santa  Fe  is  the  work  of  this  misty  past,  and  Mr. 
White  hopes  to  bring  part  of  it  to  Chicago  and  the  Ex- 
position. Mr.  White  himself  is  an  ideal  exponent  of 
the  manhood  which  dominates  the  regions  that  have 
not  yet  reached  the  dignity  of  Statehood.  He  was  rev- 
elling in  the  luxury  of  full  evening  dress  in  the  palatial 
Auditorium  Hotel,  and  might  easily  have  been  mistaken 
for  a  pampered  child  of  the  stagnant  East,  but  five  min- 
utes' conversation  with  him  brought  out  the  fact  that, 
though  born  in  New  York,  he  had  been  for  twelve  years 
in  the  Apache  country,  fifty  miles  from  a  railroad,  a 
pioneer  at  first,  and  now  a  leader  among  the  white  men 
there.  He  calls  himself  a  Western  man,  and  acknowl- 
edges stronger  ties  in  the  robust  West  than  those  by 
which  birth  binds  him  to  the  metropolis. 

An  astonishing  feature  of  the  Columbian  Exposition 
will  be  one  of  the  palaces  grouped  in  the  heart  of  the 
Fair  Grounds.  It  is  the  Manufactures  Building,  designed 
by  Mr.  George  Post,  of  New  York.  It  will  bear  the 
same  relation  to  this  Exposition  as  the  Eiffel  Tower 
did  to  that  of  Paris  in  1889;  and,  indeed,  its  possible 
use  as  a  vantage-point  from  which  to  see  the  Fair  Grounds 
has  terminated  in  the  negative  the  discussion  for  and 
against  the  construction  in  Chicago  of  a  rival  to  the 
great  tower  of  Paris.  This  greatest  of  all  the  Exposi- 
tion Buildings,  and  of  the  buildings  of  the  world,  will 
present  to  Lake  Michigan  a  facade  of  such  a  length  as 
to  suggest  the  wall  of  a  city,  yet  it  is  so  admirably  de- 
signed, so  light  and  graceful  in  its  effect  upon  the 

123 


vision,  that  its  true  extent  can  only  be  comprehended 
when  its  dimensions  are  expressed  in  figures  and  by 
comparisons.  It  is  one-third  of  a  mile  long,  and  to  com- 
pass it  round  about  is  to  walk  a  mile.  The  roof  of  it  is 
1688  by  788  feet,  and  the  span  of  the  dome,  the  largest 
ever  attempted,  is  388  feet.  The  roof  is  230  feet  from 
the  ground,  and  the  building  has  40  acres  of  ground- 
floor.  Two  of  the  vast  machinery  halls  of  the  Paris 
Exposition  could  be  wheeled  through  it,  and  the  Audi- 
torium, the  building  of  which  Chicago  is  most  proud, 
could  be  pushed  under  this  great  roof,  tower  and  all. 

But,  without  any  question,  the  most  amazing  exhibit 
at  the  Fair  will  be  Chicago  itself.  It  will  interest  every 
class  of  visitors.  It  will  offer  a  tonic  and  exhilarant  to 
the  frivolous,  and  a  subject  for  profound  study  to  the 
thoughtful.  Let  those  who  go  there  like  it  or  not,  there 
it  will  be  found — a  vast,  throbbing,  roaring  combination 
of  humanity,  machinery,  and  masonry.  It  is  so  new 
that  a  tree  which  figured  in  an  Indian  massacre,  at  a 
border  fort  that  marked  the  city's  beginning,  is  still 
standing  —  a  far  from  ancient -looking  object  —  in  the 
smoke-burdened  atmosphere  of  myriad  factories,  in  the 
presence  of  1,200,000  inhabitants,  and  in  the  shadow  of 
an  aggregation  of  buildings  taller  than  the  average  Eu- 
ropean ever  conceived  the  Tower  of  Babel  to  be.  Ad- 
mire Chicago  or  criticise  it  as  they  may,  it  will  stand  to 
awe  and  to  confuse  the  men  of  our  own  as  well  as  of 
foreign  cities.  Young  it  will  be  found,  but  not  infantile, 
for  it  will  display  the  most  palpable  monuments  of  a 
consummate  civilization.  It  will  show  a  magnificent 
park  system  not  anywhere  excelled,  mile  upon  mile  and 
line  upon  line  of  boulevards,  magnificent  in  themselves, 
and  bordered  by  homes  which  only  vast  wealth  widely 

124 


distributed  can  maintain.  It  will  display  splendid  pub- 
lic schools,  libraries,  hospitals,  storehouses,  galleries,  and 
theatres ;  hotels  unexcelled  elsewhere  on  the  globe ; 
factories  whose  workmen  could  populate  towns,  and 
whose  products  are  as  familiar  in  Europe  and  Canada 
as  in  Illinois.  But  it  suffices  those  who  love  Chicago 
best  to  think  that  in  the  preparation  she  has  made  for 
the  Exposition  in  1893  she  has  recognized  the  fact  that 
Chicago  is  to  be  only  one  exhibit,  and  that  the  aim  of 
the  Exposition  is  to  reveal  the  progress  of  the  United 
States  first,  and  of  the  world  afterwards. 

Chicago's  financial  part  in  the  preparation  for  the  Ex- 
position should  be  clear  to  every  one,  as  it  is  a  matter 
of  public  record  ;  but  the  people  of  that  city  assert  that 
they  are  misunderstood  and  misrepresented.  All  the 
citizens  appear  to  be  agreed  upon  one  explanation  of 
the  situation,  and  it  is  a  very  simple  story.  At  the  out- 
set 28,000  persons  subscribed  86,000,000.  This  was  to 
be  collected  in  instalments.  Conditionally  upon  $3,000,- 
ooo  being  collected,  the  Illinois  Legislature  authorized 
the  city  to  issue  bonds  for  a  further  contribution  of 
$5,000,000  to  the  enterprise.  The  $6,000,000  that  were 
subscribed  and  the  additional  $5,000,000  from  the  mu- 
nicipality constitute  $11,000,000,  or  $1,000,000  more 
than  the  city  agreed  to  put  up. 

Now  as  to  the  national  participation  in  the  enterprise. 
The  Government  appropriation  of  $1,500,000  has  not 
been  touched  by  the  local  corporation.  It  has  no  more 
to  do  with  this  money  than  it  has  with  whatever  sum  Con- 
necticut or  Indiana  may  set  apart  for  defraying  the  cost 
of  their  individual  State  exhibits.  The  Federal  Govern- 
ment appropriation  is  being  used  to  meet  the  expenses 
of  the  National  Commission  and  for  the  construction  of 

125 


the  Government  buildings.  But  there  will  be  made 
upon  Congress  a  demand  for  a  loan  of  $5,000,000,  to  be 
secured  to  the  nation  out  of  the  gate  receipts  of  the 
Exposition.  It  is  asserted  that  the  necessity  for  this 
sum  was  brought  about  by  the  National  Commission, 
which  so  enlarged  the  classification  lists  of  exhibits  as 
to  greatly  widen  the  projected  scope  of  the  Exposition, 
and  to  make  $10,000,000  inadequate  for  the  purpose. 
This  National  Commission  is  a  supervisory  body,  repre- 
senting all  the  States  and  the  country  at  large,  and 
placed  over  the  local  corporation  in  authority.  The 
National  Commission  recognizes  its  responsibility,  and 
co-operates  with  the  local  corporation  in  asking  for  this 
loan.  The  request,  therefore,  comes  to  the  Government 
from  its  own  representatives.* 

*  Since  this  was  written  Congress,  in  the  summer  of  1892,  ap- 
propriated $2,500,000  as  an  outright  gift,  for  the  expenses  of  the 
undertaking,  with  liberal  extra  provisions  for  specific  purposes 
named  in  the  bill. 

126 


CHAPTER    XI 
EXPLOITING   THE   FAIR 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  work  on  our  World's  Colum- 
bian Exposition  it  was  resolved  to  organize  a  depart- 
ment like  unto  which  there  had  been  nothing  in  any 
other  similar  undertaking.  That  was  what  is  called  the 
Department  of  Publicity  and  Promotion.  It  has  been 
in  operation  nearly  two  years,  and  has  proved  to  possess 
a  value  not  ever  to  be  estimated  yet  known  to  be  very 
great,  because  it  has  absolutely  fed  the  press  of  the 
whole  world  with  interesting  news  of  the  coming  Expo- 
sition. It  has  put  this  news  in  the  hands  of  editors  too 
lazy  to  have  gotten  it  otherwise,  editors  too  poor  to 
have  purchased  it,  editors  neither  lazy  nor  poor  who 
could  not  have  gathered  nor  presented  it  so  attractive- 
ly ;  but,  better  than  all,  it  has  been  first  in  procuring  it, 
so  that  every  one,  even  the  most  enterprising,  has  been 
glad  to  get  and  use  it. 

An  interesting  thing  about  the  Department  of  Pub- 
licity and  Promotion  is  that  it  is  itself  conducted  as  if 
its  rooms  formed  a  great  newspaper  office.  Major 
Handy,  the  chief,  is  the  editor  and  guide  as  to  the  pol- 
icy to  be  pursued  in  the  gathering  and  treatment  of 
that  flood  of  news  which  so  great  an  exposition  creates 
as  surely  as  a  fire  creates  a  current  of  air.  His  assistant, 

127 


Mr.  R.  E.  A.  Dorr,  was,  until  August,  1892,  the  managing 
editor  in  charge  of  the  supervision  of  details.  Others ' 
subordinate  to  Major  Handy  are  a  city  editor,  heading 
a  staff  of  reporters ;  an  exchange  editor,  reading  all  the 
newspapers  for  what  has  been  published  about  the  Fair, 
and  a  corps  of  translators  making  the  news  legible  to 
foreigners.  The  rooms  of  the  department,  in  the  Rand 
&  McNally  Building  in  Chicago,  where  all  the  World's 
Fair  offices  are,  present  scenes  that  recall  a  modern  city 
newspaper  office.  There  the  editors  sit  receiving  the 
public  and  issuing  orders.  There  is  the  reporters'  room, 
full  of  desks  and  crowded  with  busy  writers ;  and  there 
is  even  a  mailing-room  for  the  wrapping  and  addressing 
of  the  printed  sheets  of  news. 

The  department  was  established  in  December,  1890, 
by  the  appointment  of  its  chief.  Major  Moses  P.  Handy 
is  widely  known.  As  a  journalist  his  editorial  work  in 
Philadelphia  and  New  York  gained  him  fame  for  his  en- 
terprise and  successes.  As  President  of  the  Clover  Club 
of  Philadelphia  for  many  years,  and  as  a  brilliant  after- 
dinner  speaker  and  entertainer  he  extended  his  fame 
beyond  this  hemisphere.  There  was  nothing  but  the 
name  of  the  department  in  the  files  of  either  the  Na- 
tional Commission  or  the  directory  of  the  Exposition  to 
indicate  its  duties  or  what  results  it  was  expected  to 
produce.  With  the  sanction  of  the  Director- general, 
Major  Handy  at  once  took  the  position  that  the  de- 
partment must  reach  to  every  corner  of  the  earth. 
About  the  first  work  done  by  it  was  the  sending  of  a 
circular  to  every  daily  and  weekly  newspaper  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada  telling  of  the  creation  of  the 
department,  that  it  proposed  to  issue  a  weekly  budget 
of  news  about  the  making  of  the  Fair,  and  that  it  would 

128 


MACMONNIES   FOUNTAIN 


send  this  budget  without  cost  to  such  papers  as  might 
desire  it.  The  only  return  asked  was  that  a  copy  of 
every  paper  containing  anything  about  the  Exposition 
should  be  mailed  to  the  department.  About  10,000  pub- 
lications responded,  requesting  that  the  weekly  news- 
letter be  sent  to  them.  The  promptness  and  great 
number  of  these  requests  necessitated  the  formation  of 
such  an  organization  as  is  hinted  at  above. 

Having  established  relations  with  the  newspapers  of 
the  United  States  and  Canada,  a  similar  plan  was  fol- 
lowed with  those  of  foreign  countries.  A  newspaper 
writer  of  ability,  who  had  French  and  English  at  his 
command,  was  employed  to  write  a  weekly  letter  in 
those  languages;  another  for  the  German  letter;  anoth- 
er for  Portuguese ;  and  occasional  letters  were  also  pre- 
pared in  Italian,  Russian,  Turkish,  and  Dutch.  Includ- 
ing the  letters  in  these  foreign  languages,  the  list  of 
papers  which  weekly  received  the  Exposition  budget 
soon  outnumbered  17,000.  The  work  of  exploiting  the 
Exposition  may  be  said  to  have  been  divided  under 
three  headings :  first,  to  let  the  world  know  where  and 
what  Chicago  is,  its  greatness  as  a  city,  and  its  accessi- 
bility ;  second,  to  make  thoroughly  understood  the  plan 
and  scope  of  the  Exposition,  and  the  great  opportuni- 
ties it  would  offer  any  one  in  almost  any  part  of  the 
world  to  show  his  wares  to  the  peoples  of  the  other 
parts.  In  other  words,  the  second  stage  was  to  secure 
exhibits.  These  two  lines  of  labor  may  now  be  con- 
sidered closed.  The  work  has  been  finished,  and  in 
such  a  manner  that  there  is  now  no  place  so  remote  that 
its  people  do  not  know  all  that  it  was  aimed  to  make 
clear  and  attractive  to  them.  The  third  stage  of  the 
advertising  will  be  for  gate  receipts,  and  will  include  al- 

129 


most  every  kind  of  advertising  known  to  the  theatrical 
or  show  business. 

In  addition  to  the  newspaper  work,  it  was  deemed  of 
importance  to  interest  as  many  persons  of  influence  in 
their  communities  as  possible,  and  the  interest  and  co- 
operation of  foreigners  were  considered  most  important. 
To  secure  the  names  and  addresses  of  foreign  merchants 
and  manufacturers  whose  businesses  were  large  enough 
to  warrant  their  becoming  exhibitors,  if  the  Exposition 
could  interest  them  to  that  extent,  an  autograph  letter 
was  sent  to  every  diplomatic  and  consular  representative 
of  the  United  States,  asking  for  a  list  of  the  names  of 
such  persons  in  his  district.  The  keen  interest  shown 
by  America's  representatives  abroad  resulted  in  a  foreign 
mail  list  such  as  had  probably  never  been  equalled  in 
this  or  any  other  country.  The  names  of  more  than 
12,000  leading  merchants  and  manufacturers  were  se- 
cured in  this  way.  Every  week  for  several  months  a 
circular  or  letter,  printed  in  the  language  of  the  person 
for  whom  it  was  intended,  was  sent  to  these  persons. 
The  interest  that  was  at  once  awakened  was  shown  in 
the  receipt  of  as  many  as  forty  or  fifty  foreign  letters  a 
day.  It  was  found  necessary  to  comply  with  the  re- 
quest of  thousands  of  individuals  who  asked  to  be  sup- 
plied with  the  World's  Fair  literature.  Several  State 
Legislatures  instructed  their  clerks  to  request  that  this 
matter  be  sent  to  the  home  addresses  of  members. 
High  officials  of  the  Farmers'  Alliance  sent  long  lists  of 
officers  in  all  parts  of  the  country  whom  they  wished 
kept  informed  of  what  was  done  here.  More  than  400 
libraries  asked  for  the  literature  for  display  in  their  read- 
ing-rooms and  for  final  preservation.  To  enumerate  all 
the  classes  into  which  this  mail  -  list,  now  embracing 

130 


about  70,000  names,  is  divided  would  be  to  mention  al- 
most every  line  of  industry  in  the  world. 

While  organizing  the  other  systems,  Major  Handy 
also  covered  the  essential  point  of  determining  what  be- 
came of  the  matter  sent  tp  the  newspapers.  To  do  this, 
what  would  be  called  in  a  newspaper  office  "  an  ex- 
change editor's  room "  was  established,  and  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  securing  excerpts  from  clipping 
*  agencies  in  London,  Paris,  Berlin,  New  York,  and  Chi- 
cago. The  several  thousands  of  publications  received 
in  the  department  were  also  carefully  read  for  matter 
relating  to  the  Exposition.  Scrap-books  were  made  for 
every  State  and  Territory  in  the  Union,  and  for  every 
country  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  After  the  clippings 
are  read  and  assorted  in  the  exchange  editor's  division, 
they  are  pasted  in  the  various  books.  These  clippings 
are  so  numerous  that  before  the  organization  of  the 
scrap-book  division  there  was  an  accumulation  of  more 
than  60,000  of  them  ;  and  they  are  still  received  in  such 
large  quantities  that  the  division  is  apt  to  be  kept  30,000 
clippings  behind  its  work.  When  these  clippings  are 
examined,  careful  tally  is  kept  of  the  number  of  words 
each  month's  batch  contains,  and  of  the  proportion  there- 
of that  was  sent  out  by  the  department.  The  monthly 
report  of  the  department  for  May  shows  that  these  clip- 
pings contain  5,314,000  words,  of  which  2,202,150  words 
were  matter  furnished  by  the  department.  The  Depart- 
ment of  Publicity  and  Promotion  also  does  the  transla- 
tion for  the  entire  Exposition. 

In  time  it  became  clear  that  the  demand  for  pictures 

must  be  met.     Many  persons  would   not  believe  the 

news  reports  until  they  saw  copies  of  photographs  of  the 

actual  work  under  way.     The  architects'  plans  for  build- 

o  131 


ings  were  photographed,  and  a  large  quantity  of  prints 
of  them  was  sent  all  over  the  world.  When  it  was  de- 
cided to  issue  a  colored  picture,  showing  a  bird's-eye 
view  of  all  the  grounds  and  buildings,  a  competition  be- 
tween the  leading  lithographers  of  the  country  was 
called,  the  rivalry  being  more  with  regard  to  the  beauty 
and  accuracy  of  the  design  than  to  the  cost  of  the  prod- 
uct. The  water -color  painted  by  Mr.  Charles  Graham 
was  accepted  and  adopted  as  the  official  picture  of  the 
Exposition.  This  picture  has  literally  been  sent  to  ev- 
ery part  of  the  world.  There  is  scarcely  a  town  in  the 
United  States,  in  Canada,  or  South  America,  of  1500 
population  or  more,  but  has  this  picture  conspicuously 
displayed.  In  a  published  interview  a  traveller  just  re- 
turned from  the  far  East  told  of  having  seen  one  of 
these  pictures  in  a  native  village  on  the  edge  of  the 
Saharan  Desert.  Another  traveller  from  South  America 
and  several  from  the  Orient  have  made  similar  reports, 
showing  the  wonderful  effectiveness  of  the  methods 
adopted  for  this  distribution.  About  100,000  copies  of 
this  picture  have  been  sent  out,  together  with  the  news- 
paper cuts,  which  are  being  printed  wherever  newspa- 
pers are  published,  and  which  have  made  the  artistic 
triumphs  of  the  Exposition  architects  familiar  to  nearly 
every  one.  Every  week  at  least  40,000  separate  enve- 
lopes are  sent  out  from  the  mailing-room,  and  each  en- 
velope requires  at  least  a  cent  stamp.  The  work  of  fold- 
ing, enclosing,  and  stamping  these  packages  is  all  done 
in  the  mailing  division,  where  also  the  addresses  are  put 
on  the  envelopes  by  mailing  machines  similar  to  those 
in  use  in  the  largest  newspaper  offices.  Expert  help  has 
to  be  employed  here,  as  in  every  other  branch  of  the 
department.  There  was  no  time  to  educate  beginners 

132 


THE   STATUE   OF   THE   REPUBLIC 


in  an  enterprise  whose  life  is  so  short  as  this  one's  must 
be.  The  expense  of  all  this  has  been  very  great,  even 
though  it  has  been  managed  very  economically,  but  the 
money  must  assuredly  prove  a  paying  investment. 


CHAPTER   XII 
BUILDING    OUR    GREAT    FAIR 

IT  is  not  true  that  the  grounds  of  our  Columbian 
Exposition  in  Jackson  Park,  Chicago,  have  for  months 
been  more  interesting  than  they  will  be  when  the  Fair 
is  thrown  open  to  the  world.  And  yet  they  have  pre- 
sented a  fascinating  study  during  all  the  stages  of  the 
preparation  for  the  great  display ;  a  scene  so  peculiar 
that  no  public  exhibition  except  the  completed  Fair 
can  exceed  it  in  interest.  To  have  been  there  and  to 
have  watched  the  construction  of  the  Exhibition  pal- 
aces is  to  have  enjoyed  a  great  surprise  and  an  unique 
pleasure.  The  3000  spectators  on  week-days,  and  the 
10,000  who  have  paid  their  quarter-dollars  at  the  gates 
on  Sundays,  will  alone  be  able  to  boast,  when  they  see 
the  Columbian  show  itself,  that  they  have  enjoyed  the 
full  spectacle.  "  They  will  have  seen  the  earliest  and 
most  peculiar  exhibit — the  mode  and  progress  of  con- 
struction. It  will  not  dwarf  the  aggregation  of  exhib- 
its, but  it  pales  every  single  one  or  dozen  of  them. 

It  is  the  custom  of  the  persons  concerned  in  the  work 
to  refer  back  to  the  time  when  not  a  spade  had  been 
thrust  in  the  surface  of  the  Fair  Grounds,  as  if  that  were 
an  interesting  period;  and  truly  it  is  wonderful,  now,  to 
see  the  finished  avenues  and  lawns  around  the  great 

134 


palaces  and  the  trim-sided  lagoons  and  the  orderly  beach 
of  Belgian  blocks  against  which  the  lake's  wavelets  lick, 
and  to  know  that  here,  a  year  ago,  was  part  jungle,  part 
marsh,  and  part  sandy  waste.  Of  what  has  been  done 
with  the  land  and  water  nothing  is  to  me  more  interest- 
ing than  the  story  of  the  making  of  the  Wooded  Island. 
This  island,  as  all  the  public  must  know,  is  in  the  main 
lagoon  between  the  Horticultural  Building  and  the 
enormous  structure  for  the  exploitation  of  manufactures 
and  liberal  arts.  It  contains  sixteen  acres,  is  sparsely 
wooded,  and  is  designed  to  be  kept  rid  of  all  buildings 
except  a  superb  Japanese  temple,  and  is  to  be  sacred  to 
public  comfort.  It  will  be  a  cool  and  shady  place  for  vis- 
itors to  rest  upon.  One  end  of  it  the  Japanese  will  deco- 
rate \vith  their  peculiar  but  beautiful  flowers  and  dwarfed 
trees,  and  this  they  have  promised  to  give  to  Chicago 
as  a  lasting  memento  of  their  interest  in  our  Exposition. 
The  place  was  scarcely  an  island;  it  was  rather  a  lump 
of  solid  sand  in  a  marsh.  To-day  it  is  a  picturesque 
islet  that  any  one  would  vow  had  been  made  by  Nature 
and  by  her  slow  processes.  The  banks  slope  into  the 
clear  water  of  the  lagoon  in  a  very  naturally  ragged 
way,  with  sedge-grass  and  water-weeds  and  lilies  wading 
out  beyond  the  edges  of  the  water.  Little  arms  of  vege- 
tation and  of  land  reach  out  here  and  there  between 
tiny  coves  and  bays,  and  the  general  effect  is  so  natural 
and  real  that  it  amazes  one  to  hear  that  it  is  not  so. 
Yet  the  fact  is  that  the  island  as  we  see  it  to-day  is  a 
work  of  art — of  the  art  of  Frederick  Law  Olmstead  and 
his  partner,  the  landscape  architects.  The  land  was 
shaped  as  it  is  now,  and  the  lilies  and  grasses  and  water- 
plants  were  put  there  and  made  to  grow  according  to  a 
picture  or  a  plan,  precisely  as  the  gigantic  palaces  of 


the  Exposition  were  first  designed  upon  paper  and  then 
executed  by  mechanics. 

Such  perfected  bits  of  the  Fair  Grounds  do  not  speak 
for  themselves,  however.  One  might  walk  around  and 
over  them  and  never  suspect  that  there  was  a  story  to 
tell  concerning  them.  It  is  the  buildings  that  are  loud- 
ly eloquent  of  their  own  histories,  and  that  cause  re- 
peated exclamations  of  wonder  and  delight  from  all 
who  see  them.  While  they  were  at  their  first  stage 
they  were  less  substantial  than  most  skeletons.  They 
looked  like  mere  cobwebs  of  timber  and  iron.  Next 
their  sides  were  latticed  with  thin  wood-work,  so  that 
you  saw  their  full  dimensions  and  artistic  outlines  and 
proportions,  and  yet  could  look  right  through  them  as 
if  they  were  architectural  ghosts.  To-day  some  are 
partially  at  that  stage  and  partially  clothed  with  the  staff 
that  is  to  make  them  all  look  like  palaces  of  marble  or 
of  ivory.  They  rise  on  every  hand  to  great  heights  with 
graceful  arches  and  picturesque  towers  and  pinnacles, 
and  already  reveal  bits  of  storied  entablature,  groups  of 
statuary,  reaches  of  decorated  frieze,  and,  in  short,  strong 
hints  of  all  that  is  to  compose  them. 

One  cannot  be  among  them,  and  with  the  architects 
and  artists  who  are  at  work  upon  them,  without  feeling 
that  one  is  upon  novel  ground ;  that  they  are  realized 
castles  in  Spain  ;  that  the  scene  is  an  artists'  festival,  and 
that  the  entire  work  is  like  a  materialized  dream. 

Never  in  the  world's  modern  history  did  so  many 
cultivated  men  in  so  many  allied  professions  have  such 
scope  to  give  their  genius  play,  and  to  watch  the  exe- 
cution of  their  designs,  with  full  liberty  to  alter  and  im- 
prove their  work  while  it  progresses.  The  whole  coun- 
try must  feel  the  beneficent  results  of  this  condition. 

136 


The  architects,  painters,  decorators,  sculptors,  garden- 
ers, draughtsmen,  and  engineers  who  are  housed  on 
the  grounds,  form  a  great  national  school  of  beaux  arts. 
They  are  developing  themselves  and  one  another,  and 
the  crowds  of  professional  men  that  are  constantly  visit- 
ing the  grounds  and  studying  the  work  feel  themselves 
lifted  to  new  endeavor,  and  inspired  by  the  opportuni- 
ties and  triumphs  of  the  rest.  Art  has  never  had  such 
a  field  in  this  country,  nor  such  an  opportunity,  nor 
such  liberty.  This  could  only  be  possible  under  a 
man  like  Mr.  D.  H.  Burnham,  the  Chief  of  Construction. 
A  broad  and  liberal  man,  cultivated,  sympathetic,  sensi- 
tive, and  ambitious,  kindly  with  his  fellows,  and  content 
to  let  credit  drift  whither  it  belongs,  he  is  perhaps  the 
most  remarkable  product  of  the  enterprise.  In  Paris 
he  would  have  been  heroized.  In  Chicago  he  is  leaned 
upon. 

There  are  while  I  am  writing,  in  early  July,  1892, 
about  10,000  men  at  work  in  building  the  Exposition 
grounds  and  buildings.  Thousands  are  laborers  who 
are  planting  trees,  making  roads,  driving  piles,  and  cart- 
ing and  lifting  iron  and  lumber.  But  there  is  one  great 
building  full  of  skilled  men  led  by  architects  and  artists. 
And  in  other  buildings  —  even  in  the  most  out-of-the- 
way  places — one  comes  upon  painters  at  work  upon 
frescos,  artists  illuminating  plans  with  gay  colors,  sculp- 
tors creating  beautiful  statuary  and  bass-reliefs,  and  land- 
scape architects  supervising  the  plans  for  out-door  dis- 
plays of  foliage  and  flowers. 

The  Forestry  Building  is  now  the  studio  of  the  sculp- 
tors' assistants,  who  are  making  gigantic  enlargements 
of  sculptured  models  which  are  to  be  used  on  the  great 
buildings.  These  skilled  workmen  are  mainly  Italians, 

137 


though  many  are  French,  and  a  few,  very  clever  ones, 
are  Americans.  Here  we  see  a  great  deal  of  the  work 
of  Mr.  Philip  Martiny,  of  New  York,  who  is  doing  this 
part  of  the  ornamentation  of  the  Agricultural  Building 
and  most  of  that  which  is  to  embellish  the  Galleries  of 
Fine  Arts.  The  full-relief  figures  and  great  medallion 
busts  for  that  building  will  be  made  by  Olin  Warner, 
of  New  York.  m  Carl  Bitter  is  also  there  at  work  on  the 
sculptured  decoration  of  the  Administration  Building, 
which  will  display  groups  at  each  corner  of  each  pavilion, 
on  two  stories,  and  on  each  side  of  the  doorways.  The 
figures  and  bass-reliefs  are  usually  made  one -fifth  the 
size  they  are  intended  to  be,  and  the  after-work  of  en- 
larging these  is  very  interesting.  The  sculptors  do  this 
by  what  is  technically  called  "  pointing  up."  In  a 
word,  they  take  the  original  figure  and  determine  a 
number  of  points  upon  it  as  a  basis  for  development. 
Having  put  "dividers"  upon  two  points,  they  keep  en- 
larging third  points  to  the  desired  distance  from  the 
basic  points  until  the  figure  is  the  proper  size,  always 
beginning  from  an  initial  point.  Or  they  make  a  rough 
model  which  assumes  the  main  lines  of  what  they  are 
to  produce.  This  model  is  usually  made  of  wood  built 
around  iron  rods  and  arms,  which  follow  the  straight 
lines  of  the  core  of  the  figure,  and  serve  to  keep  it  strong 
as  with  a  backbone.  They  have  easily  determined  the 
height  and  width  of  the  statue  or  figure.  The  smaller 
measurements  are  taken  with  nails  driven  in  so  that 
their  heads  are  at  the  right  distances  from  the  body. 
The  composition  of  plaster  or  staff  is  then  worked  upon 
the  figure  until  it  is  brought  up  to  these  points,  and 
gives  the  depressions  and  elevations  of  the  draperies 
and  curves  of  the  subject.  It  is  not  necessary  to  point 

138 


out  how  nice  this  work  must  be,  or  how  great  is  the 
skill  that  is  required  to  reproduce,  on  a  scale  of  five 
times  the  original  size,  all  the  fine  lines  and  shadings 
and  artistic  touches  which  produce  expression  in  a  sculpt- 
ured face. 

Some  of  the  smaller  figures,  as  of  animals  and  birds, 
are  first  made  with  small  bits  of  lath  and  whittled  pieces 
of  wood.  Though  they  are  rude  before  the  composi- 
tion is  added  and  worked  into  shape,  fhey  often  look 
very  droll,  and  are  frequently  strikingly  realistic  models, 
like  the  object  to  be  represented,  and  yet  with  angular, 
unusual  lines  such  as  cause  us  to  know  that  the  sheep 
is  to  be  a  sheep,  for  instance,  and  yet  that  it  is  a  sheep 
outlined  as  we  never  saw  one  before.  Some  of  the  giant 
figures  are  done  in  actual  staff,  where  only  single  figures 
are  wanted  and  no  copies  are  to  be  made.  The  work- 
men perform  their  tasks  in  such  cases  under  the  close 
supervision  of  the  sculptors.  Where  there  are  to  be 
duplicates  only  one  is  made,  and  that  is  of  plaster.  From 
that  a  mould  will  be  taken.  Gelatine  moulds  are  in  use 
at  the  Fair  Grounds,  made  largely  of  glue,  and  retaining 
their  softness  and  elasticity,  so  that  when  a  cast  is  torn 
from  them  their  parts  yield  and  pull  about  and  yet  re- 
turn to  their  original  form.  This  material  gives  the 
sculptor  a  great  deal  of  freedom  in  his  work,  and  this 
is  preserved  in  the  castings.  It  is  the  only  process 
which  permits  what  is  called  "undercutting,"  so  that 
the  turn  or  underside  of  a  device,  like  the  lip  of  a  flower 
or  the  undercurl  of  a  leaf,  may  be  made  with  the  cer- 
tainty that  it  will  reproduce  finely. 

A  visit  to  the  Forestry  Building  shows  the  workmen 
at  every  branch  of  their  operations,  and  often  looking 
like  pygmies  as  they  move  among  the  battalions  of  gi- 

139 


gantic  white  figures  that  they  have  created.  Still  more 
like  dwarfs  do  those  look  who  are  at  work  upon  the 
colossal  bass-reliefs  which  will  ornament  the  arches  over 
some  of  the  palace  entrances.  Half  a  dozen  men  may 
be  perched  upon  one  figure  of  a  woman  ;  one  on  her 
shoulder,  another  on  her  knees,  others  working  upon 
her  extended  arms.  Forty  or  fifty  of  these  sculptors 
have  been  busy  all  summer. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Landscape  Department  is  in 
a  storage  building  of  its  own.  Not  only  has  it  this  place 
for  the  storing  of  plants,  but  it  boasts  acres  of  beautiful 
flowers  in  propagating  houses  and  elsewhere.  Hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  flowering  plants  are  there  in  bloom, 
and  there  are  any  quantity  of  ferns  and  palms  and 
shrubs,  to  be  used  for  decorating  vases  on  balustrades 
and  lawns,  or  planted  in  pots  along  the  walks  on  the 
Wooded  Island,  and  wherever  they  will  be  most  effec- 
tive. Hundreds  of  landscape-gardeners  are  at  work  turf- 
ing the  grass-plots,  planting  trees  and  shrubs  on  the 
Wooded  Island  and  the  embankments,  and  around  the 
lagoon,  the  canals,  and  the  Great  Basin.  In  the  mean 
time  nature  is  assisting  in  the  growing  of  plants  and  all 
sorts  of  marshy  grasses  with  which  the  men  will  line  the 
edges  of  the  lagoons  to  give  them  a  natural  appearance. 
A  great  many  wild  flowers  are  being  cultivated  for  fut- 
ure use,  and  one  can  even  now  foresee  their  value,  because 
spots  which  were  sand  -  banks  not  long  ago  are  now 
abloom  with  the  tropical  luxury  of  the  most  magnificent 
landscapes.  It  may  not  have  occurred  to  all  who  read 
this  that  architecture,  floriculture,  and  landscape-garden- 
ing are  cousins  to  one  another,  but  here  the  plans  of  the 
grounds  are  elaborated  in  connection  with  the  plans  of 
the  buildings,  and  the  decoration  of  the  surface  of  the 

140 


ground  is  called  the  "  setting  "  of  the  palaces — the  jew- 
elry, the  finery,  the  lace -work  of  the  buildings,  as  it 
were.  Frederick  Law  Olmstead  &  Co.  have  this  task 
to  carry  out,  and  their  proper  title  is  "  landscape  ar- 
chitects," a  phrase  which  sounds  forced,  but  is  strictly 
practical  and  correct.  Mr.  Olmstead  is  in  Europe,  but 
it  is  his  genius  that  has  inspired  the  work,  and  his  plans 
are  being  carried  out  with  great  skill  by  Mr.  Henry  Sar- 
gent Codman.  He  has  travelled  all  over  the  world, 
studied  at  the  Academic  des  Beaux  Arts,  and  has  been 
trained  to  the  study  of  architectural  forms  and  the  re- 
lation between  architecture  and  landscape  work.  Al- 
ready his  plans  have  produced  the  great  plots  of  vivid 
lawn,  which,  reaching  along  whole  sides  of  buildings, 
throw  their  white  walls  into  bold  relief  as  if  they  were 
cameos  in  frames  of  enamel. 

The  Department  of  Water  and  Sewerage  is  just  now  a 
busy  one,  and  constitutes  one  of  those  features  of  the 
work  which  are  evident  now,  but  will  be  lost  sight  of 
when  they  are  completed.  Mr.  W.  S.  McHarg,  of  Chi- 
cago, presides  over  the  department.  Under  the  system 
of  sewerage  he  has  devised,  it  will  all  be  pumped  by 
ejectors,  through  pipes  to  the  southerly  end  of  the 
grounds,  into  a  building  containing  the  great  reservoirs 
and  other  paraphernalia  of  sewerage-cleaning  works,  in 
which  the  waste  will  be  all  treated  chemically  so  as  to 
rid  it  of  all  its  impurities,  leaving  one  part  in  the  form  of 
dry  cakes  and  the  remainder  in  the  form  of  water,  which 
will  go  back  into  Lake  Michigan  so  pure  that  it  might 
even  be  used  for  drinking  purposes.  There  are  more 
than  600  acres  in  the  grounds,  which  are  something  like 
a  mile  long  and  three-quarters  of  a  mile  wide  at  the 
broadest  part.  The  appointment  of  these  with  sewer- 
p  141 


age  and  water-supply  pipes  requires  miles  and  miles  of 
tubing.  One  system  of  pipes  takes  all  the  roof  water 
and  drains  it  into  the  lagoons  and  lake.  Another  series 
conducts  the  water  from  the  sidewalks  into  the  main 
sewerage  pipes,  so  that  it  may  not  foul  the  lagoons.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  provision  is  being  made  as 
for  a  city  of  700,000  souls.  As  50,000  exhibitors  will 
show  their  goods  at  the  Fair,  and  each  will  require  at 
least  two  attendants,  these  alone  constitute  a  daily  pop- 
ulation of  100,000  souls. 

The  work  of  the  Electrical  Department  is  not  alto- 
gether so  mole-like  and  hidden,  but  it  is  measurably  so. 
Mr.  Frederick  Sargent,  a  very  competent  electrician,  is 
putting  underground  all  the  wiring  of  the  grounds  in  im- 
mense conduits,  which  carry  the  power  to  all  points 
from  where  it  is  generated  in  Machinery  Hall.  These 
conduits  are  eight  feet  square,  or  plenty  big  enough  for 
two  or  three  men  to  walk  in,  side  by  side.  Mr.  Sargent 
has  charge  of  all  the  wiring  of  all  the  buildings,  for  all 
are  to  be  electrically  lighted.  The  electrical  fountains 
and  the  fete-night  illuminations  are  to  be  provided  for 
by  him.  He  also  has  charge  of  the  installation  of  all 
the  boiler  plants  that  will  supply  power  for  the  entire 
Exposition. 

Experts  in  railroading  have  charge  of  the  different 
systems  of  railroad  tracks  within  the  grounds,  not  only 
of  the  permanent  system  which  brings  visitors  to  the 
park,  but  of  the  installation  tracks  which  run  about 
the  exteriors  of  all  the  buildings,  and  into  those  in  which 
very  heavy  exhibits  are  to  be  carried  and  displayed. 
These  tracks  within  the  buildings  will  be  covered  by  the 
floors  until  after  the  close  of  the  Exposition,  and  then 
uncovered  again.  In  this  department  comes  the  system 

142 


called  the  Intra-mural  Railroad.  It  is  an  elevated  rail- 
road, averaging  twelve  or  fourteen  feet  high,  and  built 
on  posts,  so  as  to  give  room  for  the  passage  of  people 
and  vehicles  underneath  it.  It  will  be  several  miles 
long,  and  will  land  passengers  at  every  important  point 
and  building  on  the  grounds.  It  is  a  simple  elevated 
road.  It  will  be  connected  with  the  great  terminal  sta- 
tion, or  main  depot,  in  the  Fair  Grounds,  with  the  south 
side  "  alley  L  road  "  of  the  city,  and  with  all  the  main 
entrances  to  the  grounds. 

Mr.  Frank  D.  Millet,  the  famous  author,  artist,  and 
war  correspondent,  has  an  important  department,  under 
the  title  of  "  Director  of  Color."  He  is  exercising  a 
general  supervision  over  all  the  color  and  decorative  ef- 
fects to  be  produced  on  and  in  the  buildings  and  about 
the  grounds.  The  buildings  are  all  turned  over  to  him 
bare  and  naked,  except  in  so  far  as  they  possess  statues, 
carvings,  or  medallions  as  part  of  their  designs.  He 
must  tone  or  illuminate  them  inside  and  out — or,  rather, 
see  that  this  is  done.  He  has  charge  of  the  designing 
and  disposition  of  all  the  banners,  flags,  burgees,  awnings, 
and  of  any  and  everything  that  is  to  give  tone  and  col- 
or and  spectacular  effect  to  each  view  the  visitors  may 
get  of  the  Fair.  He  is  to  turn  the  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion into  a  brilliant  picture — a  vast  stage  effect.  He  is 
to  illuminate  and  glorify  it.  It  is  an  immense  task,  but 
it  is  in  capable  hands.  Mr.  Millet  has  travelled  exten- 
sively, and  has  seen  many  universal  expositions,  fairs, 
great  fetes,  and  pageants.  He  will  therefore  be  able  to 
see  to  it  that  the  artistic  element  shall  not  be  dropped, 
subordinated,  or  forgotten  in  the  tremendous  rush  of 
practical  work  that  is  going  on. 

Neither  he  nor  any  dozen  men  can  do  the  work  of 

143 


this  department.  Almost  any  one  of  the  great  palaces, 
one  of  which  has  a  mile  of  walls,  might  occupy  a  man's 
time  for  years.  As  he  can  only  supervise  the  whole,  it  is 
Mr.  Millet's  task  to  gather  around  him  the  artists  of  the 
country  who  are  competent,  and  divide  among  them  the 
actual  work  of  decorating  the  buildings.  To  paint  the 
pendentive  domes  of  the  biggest  building  (Manufactures 
and  Liberal  Arts)  he  has  invited  J.  C.  Beckwith,  Ken- 
yon  Cox,  C.  S.  Reinhart,  Robert  Reid,  E.  E.  Simmons, 
E.  H.  Blashfield,  Walter  Shirlaw,  and  J.  Alden  Weir. 
For  other  work  he  has  called  upon  Elihu  Vedder  and 
C.  C.  Coleman.  Mr.  Vedder  is  to  do  some  immense 
paintings  of  decorative  figures  for  the  dome  of  the  Art 
Building,  and  Mr.  Coleman,  it  is  hoped,  will  paint  some 
flower  panels  for  the  Horticultural  Building.  Mr.  Pot- 
ter and  Mr.  P.  C.  French,  the  sculptors,  are  doing  a 
huge  quadriga  for  the  Columbus  Porticus  or  water  gate- 
way to  the  grounds,  as  well  as  bulls  and  stallions,  led  by 
men,  for  the  pedestals  in  front  of  the  Agriculture  and 
Manufactures  and  Liberal  Arts  buildings.  Edward 
Kemeys,  of  New  York,  is  on  the  grounds  to  do  figures 
of  wild  animals  native  to  this  country,  for  the  pedestals 
on  the  bridges.  Theodore  Baur,  of  New  York,  is  at 
work  upon  the  great  figures  on  the  Peristyle  that  are 
to  represent  the  forty-eight  States  and  Territories.  Mr. 
G.  W.  Maynard  is  doing  the  decorations  of  the  colon- 
nades, porticos,  and  dome  of  the  building  for  Agricult- 
ure. Mr.  W.  L.  Dodge  is  painting  the  ceiling  of  the 
dome  of  the  Administration  Building.  Already  the  ar- 
tistic side  of  the  great  show  has  developed  a  most  inter- 
esting collection  of  studios  and  of  painters  and  sculp- 
tors at  work,  but  there  will  be  a  host  of  such  before 
early  winter.  And  others  are  at  work  elsewhere.  Wal- 

144 


THE  GERMAN   GOVERNMENT   BUILDING 


ter  McEvven  and  Garri  Melchers  are  engaged  in  their 
studios  in  Paris,  creating  immense  wall  panels  filled  with 
figures  for  the  decoration  of  the  corner  pavilions  of  the 
Palace  of  Manufactures  and  Liberal  Arts. 

A  busy  hive  is  the  Construction  Headquarters  —  a 
building  400  feet  long  and  200  feet  wide,  which  has 
been  designed  solely  as  a  workshop  for  the  professional 
men  and  headquarters  for  all.  It  contains  all  the  offices 
of  the  chief  of  construction  and  of  all  the  departments 
under  him,  as  well  as  an  engine-house  and  dormitories 
for  the  guards  and  firemen.  The  entire  second  floor  is 
taken  up  by  men  at  work  on  building  plans  for  the 
buildings  of  all  sizes,  the  sewerage,  and  the  engineering 
works.  An  immense  force  of  map-makers  is  keeping 
up  the  necessary  charts  and  maps — maps  of  every  pipe, 
every  wire,  every  roadway,  every  hydrant  and  lamp  and 
railroad  track.  The  labor  of  forty  men  is  required  on 
this  branch  of  the  work.  They  make  fifty  copies,  by 
the  heliograph  process,  of  every  completed  drawing,  and 
these  are  delivered  to  the  various  contractors  for  the 
differing  kinds  of  work. 

The  stages  through  which  the  plans  of  every  one  of 
the  buildings  pass  are  interesting.  The  architects'  orig- 
inal design  may  be  a  mere  sketch  in  which,  though 
every  part  is  indicated,  not  nearly  all  the  parts  are  com- 
pleted. Yet  all  that  is  left  for  the  draughtsman  is  to 
elaborate  it  on  the  lines  laid  down.  Thus  is  produced 
the  first  picture  of  a  building  as  it  will  look.  Then  the 
engineers  and  others  take  the  drawing  and  plans  and 
calculate  the  strains  and  weights  on  the  floors  and  foun- 
dations, as  well  as  the  strength  of  the  materials  that  are 
to  be  used.  Thus  the  different  departments  produce  a 
complete  set  of  drawings — often  great  in  number — from 


which  the  actual  building  is  projected.  On  the  Fair 
Grounds  a  force  of  at  least  150  men  is  thus  employed, 
and  the  rooms  are  rilled  with  the  plans  that  they  have 
accumulated.  These  are  so  fine,  and  executed  with  such 
regard  for  detail,  that  every  stick,  rod,  and  beam — I  had 
almost  said  every  nail — is  shown  in  certain  ones  among 
each  set.  One  truss  of  the  greatest  truss  roof  the  world 
ever  saw — that  of  the  Manufactures  and  Liberal  Arts 
Building — required  drawings  comprising  eighty  great 
sheets,  drawings  so  exact  that  in  them  every  plate,  nut, 
and  bolt  was  drawn  in  its  exact  shape  and  at  the  exact 
distances  apart,  so  that  the  contractors  knew  precisely 
where  to  bore  every  hole  in  the  iron-work. 

It  has  been  interesting,  almost  fascinating,  to  be  upon 
the  grounds,  and  to  observe  how  closely  the  buildings, 
in  their  progress  towards  completion,  resemble  the  vari- 
ous plans  that  have  been  drawn  for  them.  There  is  a 
time,  before  the  staff  is  put  upon  the  framework  to  make 
the  edifices  look  substantial,  when  the  great  piles  look, 
as  I  have  said,  like  houses  of  lattice- work.  But  the  most 
surprising  thing  is  to  know  that  not  only  all  the  joists 
and  beams,  but  the  infinitude  of  lattice  cross-pieces  have 
all  been  drawn  on  the  builders'  plans,  have  all  been  cut 
out  at  the  electric  saw-mills  on  the  grounds  to  match  the 
pieces  in  the  pictures,  and  then  have  been  brought  to 
the  site  by  the  car-load  and  dumped  there,  leaving  noth- 
ing for  the  carpenters  to  do  but  to  nail  them  in  place. 
Few  skilled  workmen  are  employed,  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  mere  laborers ;  indeed,  nine-tenths  of  the 
workmen  are  mere  dollar-and-a-half-a-day  folk,  whose 
duty  is  simply  to  nail  bits  of  wood  in  the  places  shown 
in  the  plans,  under  the  supervision  of  skilled  foremen. 
That  is  one  reason  why  the  constructors  have  had  little 

146 


trouble  with  the  labor  organizations.  If  nearly  all  the 
men  left  the  grounds  to-morrow,  their  places  could  be 
filled  by  the  people  seeking  work  who  are  forever  clam- 
oring at  the  gates. 

The  staff  which  covers  up  the  exteriors  of  the  palaces, 
transforming  them  into  the  counterfeits  of  solid  mason- 
ry, which  covers  up  the  skeleton  posts  and  seems  to 
convert  them  into  granite  and  marble,  is  a  material 
whose  liberal  use  at  the  Fair  has  caused  it  to  attract 
wide  attention  and  to  engender  much  discussion.  It  is 
made  principally  of  plaster  of  Paris  and  cement  and  wa- 
ter, and  while  in  the  liquid  state  is  put  into  the  moulds 
that  are  to  give  it  its  required  shape,  with  the  addition 
of  some  fibre  or  other — manila  or  jute  or  cocoanut,  or 
sometimes  a  web  or  bagging.  This  is  embedded  in  it  so 
that  when  the  mass  "  sets  "  or  solidifies  it  all  becomes 
homogeneous,  and  if  a  piece  were  cracked  or  broken  the 
fractured  parts,  instead  of  falling  out,  would  be  held  in 
place.  There  is  nothing  new  about  it.  It  has  been  long 
in  use  all  over  the  world — a  great  deal  in  the  German 
cities,  and  a  great  deal  in  South  America.  Buenos  Ayres 
and  many  cities  in  the  South  are  largely  built  of  or  fin- 
ished with  it.  The  dilapidated  houses  which  we  see  in 
our  own  cities,,  in  which  pieces  of  the  stucco  have  fallen 
away  and  reveal  brick  behind  the  fractures,  are  called 
stuccoed,  but  the  stucco  is  staff.  If  it  is  attended  to 
from  time  to  time  it  can  be  made  to  last  a  long  while. 
On  the  Fair  Grounds  it  is  first  painted  with  oil  to  make 
it  withstand  the  elements,  and  to  cause  it  to  require  less 
paint.  Then  it  is  painted  so  that  it  will  resemble  any 
building  material  and  present  any  color  that  is  desired. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
A   REALIZED   DREAM — THE   GRAND   COURT 

THE  Grand  Court,  or  Cour  d'Honneur,  of  our  Expo- 
sition is  at  one  side  of  the  main  group  of  buildings,  and 
yet  has  many  of  them  abutting  upon  it.  Most  visitors 
will  see  it  first,  for  the  water  entrance  is  at  its  foot, 
where  the  great  landing-pier  projects  into  the  lake,  and 
the  railroad  terminal  station  is  at  its  head.  These  im- 
mense and  magnificent  places  of  entrance  and  exit  are 
parts  of  the  Grand  Court,  and  are  designed  to  conform 
to  its  other  features  in  architectural  proportions  and 
finish.  There  are  many  entrances  to  the  Exposition 
Grounds  between  Fifty-fifth  and  Sixty -seventh  streets, 
but  the  tracks  over  which  the  great  railroads  that  enter 
Chicago  will  reach  the  Fair  will  turn  into  the  grounds 
at  this  Grand  Court  of  Honor.  These  will  be  sufficient 
in  number  for  the  arrival  of  trains  every  two  minutes,  if 
not  oftener.  I  will  therefore  begin  a  description  of  this 
crown-piece  of  the  great  display  by  explaining  what  the 
railroad  terminal  station  is  to  be. 

But,  first,  the  reader  should  glance  at  the  diagram  of 
the  Grand  Court.  It  has  a  great  basin  of  clear,  emerald- 
tinted  water  for  its  central  feature,  a  beautiful  pool  edged 
with  what  appears  to  be  granite,  bordered  with  grassy 
terraces  and  flowers  and  paths,  and  yet  reflecting  upon 

148 


D.  H.  BURNHAM,  CHIEF   OF   CONSTRUCTION 


its  surface  the  huge  and  splendid  palaces  which  face  it. 
On  one  side  is  the  Machinery  Building  and  that  for 
Agriculture ;  on  the  other  side  are  the  Mining  and  Elec- 
trical buildings  and  the  colossal  palace  for  Manufactures 
and  Liberal  Arts,  the  most  gigantic  building  the  world 
ever  saw. 

The  terminal  station  at  the  head  of  the  Grand  Court 
is  within  the  grounds,  and  is  controlled  by  the  directors 
of  the  Exposition.  There  never  has  been  a  world's  fair 
into  which  the  people  have  been  brought  directly.  They 
have  usually  been  landed  near  the  enclosure  and  allowed 
to  drift  in.  Messrs.  Frederick  Law  Olmstead  and  Henry 
S.Codman,  the  landscape  architects,  introduced  this  idea 
after  consultation  with  the  Chief  of  Construction  and  the 
various  consulting  architects.  It  was  part  of  the  land- 
scape architects'  work  of  plotting  the  entire  grounds. 
Their  project  was  not  only  to  land  the  visitors  within 
the  enclosure,  but  to  do  so  at  such  a  point  that  their 
first  view  should  be  the  chief  and  most  magnificent  one 
of  all ;  that  of  the  Grand  Court,  or  architectural  piece  de 
resistance  of  the  Exposition.  Twenty -four  or  perhaps 
thirty-two  tracks  will  end  at  this  terminal  depot  under 
a  train-shed  or  perron  100  feet  wide  and  672  feet  long, 
placed  exactly  behind  the  depot  building. 

Those  who  go  directly  forward  will  pass  through  a 
great  vestibule  or  hall  in  the  centre  of  the  building.  It 
is  worth  our  while  to  pause  a  moment  here  as  we  shall 
when  the  train-load  of  which  we  shall  be  a  part  is  emp- 
tied, practically,  into  this  great  gathering-place.  It  is  a 
room  175  feet  long  and  60  feet  wide,  and  its  roof  is  80 
feet  overhead.  Great  columns  and  arches  appear  to  di- 
vide it  in  three  parts,  but,  except  the  columns,  the  only 
interruption  of  the  clear  space  is  a  pretty  kiosk,  which 

149 


serves  as  an  information  bureau.  Peculiar  ornaments  of 
this  vestibule  are  twenty-four  great  clock-faces  telling  the 
time  of  day  in  as  many  of  the  world's  capitals.  These 
will  be  illuminated  at  night.  The  light  in  the  great  room 
comes  in  at  the  attic  from  windows  above  the  walls  and 
higher  than  the  neighboring  buildings.  On  either  end  of 
this  vestibule  are  rooms  for  public  comfort — refreshment 
and  lunch  counters  and  a  ladies'  parlor  at  one  end ;  at 
the  other,  boot-black  stands,  a  barber-shop,  gentlemen's 
toilet-room,  check-rooms,  and  a  room  solely  for  resting. 
There  will  be  ample  provision  for  persons  with  baskets 
who  expect  to  lunch  upon  what  they  bring.  A  kitchen 
is  near  by,  and  they  may  have  coffee,  tea,  lemonade,  or 
what  they  wish. 

At  either  end  of  this  central  hall  are  grand  stairways 
leading  to  the  second  floor  and  to  a  gallery  twenty-five 
feet  wide  looking  down  into  the  open  hall  over  a  beauti- 
ful railing.  This  gallery  connects  with  a  large  open  log- 
gia on  the  front  of  the  building  and  facing  the  jewel-like 
Administration  Building,  the  gem  among  the  palaces. 
As  the  Administration  Building  is  but  262  feet  long  and 
the  loggia  is  700  feet  long,  the  spectator  will  see  beyond 
either  side  of  the  beautiful  building,  beyond  palace  after 
palace,  the  full  length  of  the  Court  of  Honor  to  the  Co- 
lumbus Porticus  and  the  blue  waves  of  Lake  Michigan, 
which  form  a  background  to  that  royal  arch.  Weary 
men  and  women,  who  have  travelled  about  the  grounds 
all  day,  perhaps,  will  find  settees  on  this  loggia,  and  may 
there  fix  indelibly  upon  their  vision  this  last  grand  view 
of  the  Fair. 

To  vouchsafe  and  to  multiply  the  means  for  public 
comfort  has  been  the  unending  thought  of  the  builders 
of  the  Fair.  In  this  they  have  had  a  selfish  purpose, 

150 


though  the  result  will  be  delightful  to  all  visitors.  To 
give  conveniences  for  resting  to  the  public,  they  argue, 
and  to  make  a  visit  cost  little  and  yield  a  great  deal  will 
be  to  keep  the  majority  a  day  longer  than  was  planned. 
Thus  the  visitors  will  not  only  come  again  and  spend 
another  half-dollar  at  the  gates,  but  when  they  depart  it 
will  be  to  go  home  and  send  their  friends.  That  will 
mean  $7,500,000  gain  if  the  15,000,000  of  visitors  who 
are  expected  stay  another  day. 

On  the  second  floor  of  the  terminal  station  is  a  res- 
taurant in  which  ladies  may  dine  alone.  There  is  also  a 
gentlemen's  smoking-room  and  an  office  where  railroad- 
tickets  and  parlor-car  berths  may  be  engaged.  On  the' 
third  floor  are  offices  of  the  railroad  officials,  Custom- 
house inspectors,  and  other  persons  connected  with  the 
work  of  transportation.  Possibly  the  roof  will  be  con- 
verted into  a  great  garden.  It  is  calculated  that  50,000 
persons  can  gather  in  the  building  at  one  time.  But  we 
must  fancy  the  people  pouring  in  and  through  and  out 
of  it. 

About  400  feet  in  front  of  it  is  the  Administration 
Building,  the  most  ornate  of  the  main  buildings,  and  of 
the  Grand  Court.  It  is  the  work  of  that  masterly  artist, 
Mr.  Richard  M.  Hunt,  of  New  York.  It  dominates  as 
well  as  illuminates  the  court  as  a  jewel  upon  a  brooch 
masters  the  entire  ornament.  Its  great  golden  dome  is 
thrust  far  on  high,  and  it  will  seem  like  a  sultan's  fancy 
to  those  who  see  it  from  the  opposite  end  of  the  court, 
standing  alone  at  the  end  of  the  grand  avenue  of  pal- 
aces. All  around  it,  at  its  open  sides,  will  be  great  ob- 
jects typical  of  the  uses  of  the  buildings  whose  sides 
adorn  the  court — locomotives  set  high  in  air  on  pedes- 
tals of  apparently  solid  masonry;  a  huge  dynamo  near 

Q  151 


the  Electrical  Building,  a  powerful  ore-crusher  or  some 
compact  engine  that  will  silhouette  well  against  the  sky 
to  typify  the  purpose  of  the  Mining  Building.  Here 
will  also  be  several  huge  masts  from  the  primeval  forests 
of  Washington,  125  feet  high,  gaudy  in  color,  and  fling- 
ing banners  against  the  sky.  The  crowd  will  pass 
through  the  Administration  Building,  whose  main  arches 
lead  into  an  octagonal  rotunda  under  a  dome  compar- 
able only  with  that  of  the  Pantheon  —  a  dome  brilliant 
with  color  and  decoration  and  lighted  by  a  great  eye  or 
opening  at  the  top.  There  will  be  nothing  for  the 
crowds  to  do  here  except  to  pass  through  this  elaborate- 
ly decorated  rotunda  over  its  mosaic  pavement,  but 
those  who  have  business  there  will  find  the  Administra- 
tion offices  in  the  wings  or  pavilions  at  each  corner  of 
the  edifice.  These  appear  small  in  the  pictures,  but  are 
in  reality  broad  four-story  office  buildings.  A  noble 
interior  gallery,  on  a  level  with  the  roofs  of  these  pavil- 
ions, lords  it  over  the  scene,  giving  a  view  of  the  multi- 
tude passing  through  the  rotunda  and  another  upward 
at  the  bands  of  color,  the  pictured  panels,  and  the  sculpt- 
ured figures  of  the  dome. 

Once  beyond  this  building,  the  visitor  confronts  the 
foot  of  the  Great  Basin,  where  stands  the  magnificent 
McMonnies  Fountain,  one  of  the  most  ambitious  of  the 
smaller  ornaments  of  the  grounds.  On  either  side  of  it 
are  beautiful  electrical  fountains,  which  at  night  toss  up 
masses  of  illuminated  water  colored  in  various  hues — 
masses  fifty  feet  in  diameter,  which  rise  twenty-five  or 
thirty  feet  high,  and  are  designed  to  give  the  electricians 
a  chance  to  show  the  utmost  that  they  can  do  in  per- 
forming the  princely  nineteenth  century  trick  of  glorify- 
ing water  with  color,  and  transforming  it  into  the  sem- 

152 


blance  of  precious  gems.  Their  work  is  all  to  be  done 
in  chambers  below  ground  and  with  reflectors.  A  man 
hidden  somewhere  in  a  conning  tower  will  play  the  keys 
that  manipulate  the  colors,  and  an  artist  will  watch  and 
compose  the  effects  on  fete  nights. 

A  few  words  about  the  electrical  illuminations,  such 
as  will  be  seen  on  every  fete  night,  will  but  do  the  sub- 
ject the  scantest  justice.  Fancy  yourself  a  visitor  looking 
on  at  the  tumultuous  waters  of  the  fountains  somer- 
saulting like  explosions  of  amethysts  or  pearls  or  emer- 
alds, turquoises  or  sapphires.  The  Great  Basin  is  before 
you,  timidly  reflecting  the  stars  and  showing  the  slanting 
beams  of  the  electric  lights  in  the  buildings  and  on  the 
grounds.  Suddenly,  close  to  the  water-line,  a  row  of 
electric  lights  bursts  forth  all  along  the  edge  of  the 
basin  just  above  the  water.  It  will  seem  a  double  line 
of  jets  of  fire,  because  each  light  will  be  reflected  in  the 
crystal  pool.  Then,  a  few  feet  higher,  on  the  first  ter- 
race or  on  posts  above  it,  will  spring  forth  another  line 
of  brilliant  lamps  again  outlining  the  basin.  Then  lights 
will  begin  to  spring  into  bright  view  against  the  sky. 
A  corner  of  a  great  palace  will  be  outlined  in  jets  of 
light,  or  a  splendid  arch  or  its  supporting  columns.  If 
you  happen  to  be  looking  towards  the  Administration 
Building  you  will  see  its  outlines  transformed  into  white 
beads  of  electric  flame.  First  the  rounding  side  of  a 
dome,  then  the  whole  crown,  then  the  pinnacles,  the 
pavilion  roofs,  the  angles,  until  at  last  the  beautiful 
structure  will  be  all  outlined  in  fire.  But  wherever  the 
eye  turns  the  same  luminous  pencilling  will  greet  it.  At 
last  the  main  lines  of  all  the  huge  buildings  will  be 
tipped  with  the  sparkle  of  a  myriad  diamonds.  The 
rows  and  lines  and  arches  of  lights  will  creep  into  being 

153 


like  sparks  running  along  a  dead  cedar-bush  until,  final- 
ly, the  entire  splendid  Court  of  Honor  will  look  as  its 
picture  would  if  such  a  picture  were  dotted  with  pin- 
holes  and  held  before  a  brilliant  lamp. 

The  search-light,  used  with  such  wonderful  effect  on 
men-of-war  and  on  the  steamers  on  our  Southern  rivers, 
will  here  get  its  glorification,  and  will  add  other  charms 
and  another  marvel  to  the  Grand  Court.  The  most 
powerful  search-lights  that  can  be  obtained  will  be  used. 
They  will  create  sudden  daylight  after  dark.  One  upon 
the  Administration  Building,  for  instance,  will  in  an  in- 
stant lift  the  McMonnies  Fountain  or  the  great  statue  of 
the  Republic  out  of  the  nightlights  into  the  full  splen- 
dor of  broad  noon,  keeping  it  as  if  ablaze  before  the  ob- 
servers, like  a  bit  of  ivory  on  black  velvet.  Other  lights 
will  glorify  other  objects.  Bits  of  daylight  will  pluck 
the  gems  of  the  court  out  of  the  grasp  of  night  and  bathe 
them  in  mid-day  splendor. 

In  the  daytime  both  sides  of  the  Grand  Court  will  be 
seen  to  be  bordered  with  sunken  lawns  of  fine  grass  hav- 
ing bevelled  sides.  These  will  be  carefully  maintained, 
and  will  be  dotted  with  statues,  vases,  small  jets  of  water, 
and  other  ornaments.  Above  this  sunken  terrace,  eight 
feet  higher,  will  be  another  long,  wide  ribbon  of  lawn. 
Palatial  stairs,  150  feet  wide,  are  to  lead  gently  up  to  the 
buildings  which  abut  on  the  great  court,  and  which  offer 
a  series  of  long  sheltered  colonnades  open  for  prome- 
naders.  These  loggias  extend  all  around  the  great  Man- 
ufactures Building,  and  here  will  be  found  the  restau- 
rants of  many  nationalities,  having  chairs  and  tables 
spread  upon  the  promenade,  as  is  done  on  the  side- 
walks of  the  Parisian  boulevards.  Food,  drink,  flowers, 
and  the  grand  views  of  the  lake  and  Exposition  Grounds 

i54 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   BUILDING 


can  here  be  enjoyed  at  ease  not  only  by  customers  of 
the  restaurants,  but  by  all,  and  without  cost. 

The  Great  Basin  mingles  its  waters  with  those  of  a 
canal  that  reaches  out  on  either  side.  The  arms  of  the 
canal,  where  they  leave  the  Great  Basin,  are  crossed  by 
bridges  sixty  feet  wide,  of  great  beauty  and  of  massive 
design.  The  heavy  balustrade  which  edges  the  entire 
terrace  is  carried  over  the  bridges,  and  on  abutments  on 
either  end  of  the  bridges  are  tremendous  rostral  col- 
umns— a  form  of  ornament  familiar  to  ancient  Rome,  but 
not  before  seen  in  this  country.  These  rostral  columns 
stood  about  in  the  city  of  the  Caesars  to  commemorate 
the  victories  of  each  succeeding  emperor.  Here,  at  the 
Columbian  Fair,  they  will  be  sixty  feet  in  height,  upon 
massive  pedestals.  On  each  capital  will  stand  a  heroic 
figure  of  Neptune,  and  projecting  from  opposite  sides  of 
the  columns  will  be  sculptured  prows  or  beaks  of  Ro- 
man war  barges.  On  the  opposite  faces  and  on  the  ped- 
estals will  be  naval  trophies,  coats  of  arms,  and  mottoes 
glorifying  Columbus's  daring,  the  whole  structure  resting, 
in  each  case,  upon  successive  flights  of  steps  in  a  noble 
manner.  There  are  six  of  these  rostral  columns,  and 
they  are  disposed  like  outriders  or  heralds  to  accentuate 
and  emphasize  the  effect  of  the  great  buildings. 

Gaudy  covered  ways  of  bright  awnings  will  fill  the 
spaces  between  the  bridges  and  the  loggias  or  colon- 
nades of  the  palaces,  so  that  the  entire  way  around  the 
Grand  Court  may  be  made  in  the  shade  during  hot 
weather.  Banners  waving  from  great  masts,  a  flutter  of 
gay  bunting  on  all  the  buildings,  electric  launches  dart- 
ing, gondolas  loafing,  banks  of  shrubs  and  flowers,  heroic 
statues  in  every  view,  vases  on  pedestals,  boxes  of  trop- 
ical trees,  and,  above  all,  the  giant  palaces  and  the  mul- 


titudes  of  pleasure  seekers — these  are  the  objects  which 
will  render  a  view  of  the  Court  memorable. 

At  the  head  of  the  Great  Basin,  where  the  grand 
statue  of  the  Republic  stands  like  a  sculptured  island  of 
marble,  is  a  vast  open  space  raised  above  the  low  ter- 
races, where  thousands  may  congregate  and  look  down 
upon  and  along  the  Court.  But  to  do  this  they  must 
turn  their  backs  upon  the  Peristyle  and  the  Columbus 
Porticus,  which  many  of  the  artists  who  have  studied 
the  plans  regard  as  one  of  the  most  impressive  and  ar- 
tistic triumphs  of  the  Exposition,  as  it  is  certainly  one 
of  the  happiest  adaptations  of  a  Roman  motive.  Like 
the  greater  part  of  all  that  enters  into  this  description 
of  the  Grand  Court,  this  is  a  new  topic  not  before  treated 
for  the  public. 

Mr.  Augustus  St.  Gaudens,  who  had  been  called  in  to 
advise  with  regard  to  the  purely  sculpturesque  and  ar- 
tistic features  of  the  Fair,  suggested  as  a  finish  to  the 
end  of  the  Court  a  row  of  isolated  standing  columns. 
These  were  to  be  fifty  feet  high,  surmounted  by  statues, 
and,  being  thirteen  in  number,  were  to  typify  the  thir- 
teen original  States,  but  since  then  the  whole  work  upon 
the  Fair  has  developed  new  plans  and  new  proportions, 
and  Mr.  Charles  B.  Atwood,  of  New  York,  has  been  ap- 
pointed Designer-in-Chief  to  supervise  the  great  work. 
In  the  light  of  the  general  development  the  original 
scheme  seemed  meagre.  Mr.  Atwood  felt  that  more 
noble  treatment  was  demanded  at  this  point.  There  was 
a  necessity  for  a  music-hall  for  Mr.  Theodore  Thomas, 
for  which  no  adequate  site  had  been  chosen.  It  occurred 
to  Mr.  Atwood  and  the  consulting  architects  that  the 
Music-hall,  the  Casino,  and  the  needed  water  approach 
could  be  combined  by  putting  a  great  arch  in  the  middle 

156 


and  the  buildings  on  either  side.  It  naturally  next  oc- 
curred to  their  minds  to  connect  these  structures  with  a 
noble  colonnade  or  peristyle.  Next,  it  was  seen  best  to 
adopt  the  architectural  proportions  which  prevailed  on 
the  sides  of  the  Court ;  indeed,  it  should  be  said  here 
that  at  the  outset  all  the  architects  agreed  to  adopt  a 
proportion  of  sixty  feet  of  height,  fifty  being  the  column 
height,  and  ten  that  of  the  entablature.  Thus  was  to  be 
kept  equal  and  even,  and  in  perfect  accord,  the  top  of  the 
line  of  solid  masonry  around  the  Grand  Court.  It  is  so 
to-day.  Above  that  sixty-foot  level  creep  the  statues, 
poles,  towers,  rails,  and  the  rest  of  the  ornamentation  of 
the  palaces. 

The  result  of  this  effort  for  harmony  is  what  is  called 
the  Peristyle — the  completion  of  the  Grand  Court  on 
the  Lake  Michigan  end.  On  the  north  end  of  the  Per- 
istyle is  the  Music-hall  and  on  the  other  the  Casino. 
The  Columbus  Porticus,  or  majestic  water-entrance  to 
the  Exposition,  is  in  the  centre  of  the  Peristyle,  which 
connects  the  two  buildings.  Although  both  the  build- 
ings on  the  ends  of  this  finishing  feature  are  in  full  view, 
the  especial  charm  of  it  is  in  the  open  Peristyle,  through 
which  is  seen  the  blue  horizon  of  the  lake.  And  though 
the  Grand  Court  is  thus  enclosed  by  a  serious  architect- 
ural feature  and  all  its  sides  are  completed,  yet  here, 
through  the  columns  of  the  Peristyle,  the  beautiful  and 
majestic  lake  still  counts  as  part  of  the  general  compo- 
sition. The  Peristyle  shows  forty-eight  columns,  twenty- 
four  on  either  side.  These  correspond  with  the  number 
of  States  and  Territories,  and  each  carries,  above  the  bal- 
ustrade of  the  work,  a  typical  figure  about  fourteen  feet 
high.  On  the  frieze  above  the  columns  and  below  the 
fiures  will  be  the  coats  of  arms  of  the  different  States 


and  the  name  of  each.  The  whole  majestic  composition 
is  850  feet  long,  the  buildings  being  140  feet  long  and 
the  Colonnade  or  Peristyle  reaching  234  feet  from  each 
building  to  meet  at  the  Columbus  Porticus,  which  is  102 
feet  wide. 

This  immense  arched  water-gate  is  to  be  surmounted 
by  a  quadriga  or  sculptured  group  representing  a  female 
herald  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  four  horses,  each  pair  led 
by  a  male  youth,  the  figures  being  completed  by  a 
pair  of  mounted  outriders  in  the  rear.  At  the  base 
of  the  Porticus  on  either  side  of  the  arch  will  be  groups 
indicating  the  Genius  of  Navigation  and  Discovery, 
with  supporting  figures  for  each  on  a  richly  decorat- 
ed projecting  prow  of  a  vessel.  The  two  buildings 
at  the  ends  of  the  great  yet  superbly  graceful  Colon- 
nade are  the  Casino  and  the  Music-hall.  Each  of 
these  structures,  harmonizing  perfectly  with  the  pal- 
aces of  the  Grand  Court,  is  140  feet  wide  by  246  feet 
long. 

The  Music-hall  is  intended,  primarily,  to  give  a  place 
for  those  musical  entertainments  which  Theodore  Thom- 
as will  conduct.  The  first  floor  of  the  hall  will  seat  2500 
persons  in  the  audience  section,  facing  the  slanting  plat- 
form for  the  chorus,  which  will  take  the  place  of  a  stage. 
Five  hundred  persons  can  be  seated  in  this  chorus 
space,  which  is  called  "  the  hemicycle "  on  account  of 
its  rounded,  horseshoe  shape,  and  which  is  constructed 
like  a  huge  shell  or  sounding-board.  Between  the 
hemicycle  and  the  audience  space  is  a  great  place  for 
the  orchestra.  On  this  ground-floor  are  all  the  offices, 
dressing-rooms  for  tenors,  prima  donne,  and  chorus,  and 
all  the  other  adjuncts  of  a  theatre  or  concert  -  hall. 
The  hall  will  be  beautifully  decorated  with  figures  and 

158 


richly  colored.  On  the  second  fleor  are  the  balco- 
ny or  gallery  of  the  hall  and  its  two  great  organs. 
There  is  also  a  rehearsal  -  room  of  large  dimensions, 
and  a  suite  of  private  rooms  for  the  comfort  of  the 
directors  of  the  Exposition  and  their  specially  invited 
guests. 

The  Casino  is  similar  to  the  Music-hall  in  external 
appearance,  but  its  ground-floor  is  all  open  and  intended 
for  public  comfort.  All  sorts  of  concessions  will  be 
granted  to  persons  to  sell  newspapers,  flowers,  beverages, 
and  whatever,  but  in  the  main  it  will  be  a  great  resting-" 
room  open  to  the  lake  and  the  Grand  Court,  and  breezy 
and  cool.  An  open  court  is  carried  up  through  the  sec- 
ond floor,  and  here  there  is  a  large  restaurant  with  din- 
ing-halls  at  either  end  and  private  dining-rooms  in 
between,  on  the  sides  of  the  Court.  Music,  beer,  and 
sandwiches  will  be  among  the  light  attractions  to  this 
place. 

The  so-called  Casino  Pier  ends  this  aggregation  of 
beautiful  works.  It  is  an  enormous  wharf,  250  feet  wide 
and  extending  2400  feet  into  the  lake.  Its  sides  will 
be  railed  in  and  set  with  turnstiles,  through  which  all 
visitors  coming  by  steamboats  must  pass.  The  famous 
movable  sidewalk  will  be  operated  on  this  pier.  It  is 
so  arranged  that  travellers  may  walk  upon  a  slow-moving 
section,  or  ride  upon  a  faster  one.  The  seats  slide  along 
under  its  roof  so  as  to  suggest  to  a  passenger  the  thought 
that  he  is  in  a  long  railroad  coach  which  stands  still 
while  the  seats  run  along  through  it.  This  sidewalk  or 
railroad  is  constructed  with  a  loop  at  either  end,  so  that 
it  is  continuous.  The  cars  are  four  feet  higher  than  the 
footwalks  on  the  pier,  and  passengers  are  able  to  enjoy 
the  view  over  the  heads  of  the  others.  At  the  outer  or 

159 


lake  end  of  the  pier  is  a  great  building  to  be  used  as  a 
refectory  or  restaurant,  where  the  crowd,  to  the  number 
of  5000  or  6000,  may  eat  and  drink  in  the  breezes  while 
enjoying  the  lake  view  of  the  Exposition. 

160 


CHAPTER  XIV 
WOMAN'S  TRIUMPH  AT  THE  FAIR 

IN  everything  "  look  for  the  woman ;"  yet  not  in  ev- 
erything ;  not  in  the  work  of  preparing  the  Columbian 
Exposition,  for  instance.  She  is  so  active  and  conspicu- 
ous in  that  as  to  make  looking  for  her  an  absurdity.  A 
section  of  the  act  of  Congress  creating  the  World's  Co- 
lumbian Commission  required  that  body  to  appoint  a 
Board  of  Lady  Managers,  and  this  was  done  by  appoint- 
ing two  ladies  from  each  State  and  Territory  and  the 
District  of  Columbia,  eight  lady  managers  at  large,  and 
nine  others  from  Chicago.  Out  of  this  apparently  sim- 
ple operation  has  grown  what  we  shall  see ;  and  if  it 
does  not  strike  the  reader  as  a  singular  thing  to  have 
credited  only  eight  of  the  ladies  with  being  "at  large," 
when  he  finds  how  universal  and  ubiquitous  they  all 
have  become,  it  must  be  that  the  reader  is  inattentive 
to  this  text. 

"  There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  unfavorable  comment 
upon  the  ridiculous  title  '  Lady  Managers'  for  our  Board 
of  Commissioners,"  said  one  of  the  women,  "  and  the 
criticism  is  just,  but  the  fault  is  with  the  framers  of  the 
World's  Fair  bill  and  not  with  the  women.  The  title 
Congress  gave  us  conveys  the  impression  that  we  are  a 
useless  ornament — idle  women  of  fashion ;  whereas  our 
R  161 


board  comprises  as  many  workers,  as  much  representa- 
tion of  the  active  industries  of  the  country,  as  if  it  were 
composed  of  men.  There  are  doctors,  lawyers,  real  e's- 
tate  agents,  journalists,  editors,  merchants,  two  cotton 
planters,  teachers,  artists,  farmers,  and  'a  cattle  queen' 
among  them.  I  beg  you  to  make  this  statement,  be- 
cause it  has  been  most  unfairly  urged  that  earnest  and 
industrious  women  have  no  representation  on  our  board." 

Mrs.  Potter  Palmer,  of  Chicago,  now  celebrated  for 
her  tact  and  great  executive  ability,  is  President  of  the 
Board  of  Lady  Managers,  and  Miss  Phoebe  Cozzens,  of 
St.  Louis,  is  Secretary.  However,  they  are  but  two  of 
womankind,  and  it  shall  be  seen  that  apparently  nearly 
all  the  women  in  nearly  every  part  of  the  land  are  en- 
thusiastic in  the  performance  of  the  task  they  have  set 
for  the  sex — that  of  filling  the  Woman's  Building  with 
an  exhibit  at  once  surprising,  varied,  and  calculated  to 
give  the  better  sex  all  the  credit  for  all  that  it  has  ac- 
complished with  its  brains  and  hands  and  hearts. 

The  Woman's  Building  was  itself  designed  by  a  wom- 
an, and,  beyond  the  manual  labor  of  the  builders,  noth- 
ing about  it  now  or  when  it  shall  be  opened  to  the  pub- 
lic reflects  credit  upon  the  sterner  sex.  Fourteen  women 
architects,  not  one  of  them  above  twenty-five  years  of 
age,  and  the  majority  hailing  from  the  South  and  West, 
submitted  designs  -for  the  structure  to  the  scrutiny  of 
the  Board  of  Architects  of  the  Exposition,  and  Miss 
Sophia  G.  Hayden,  of  Boston,  had  hers  accepted.  The 
choice  of  the  masculine  architects  is  not  concurred  in  by 
all  the  women  interested  in  the  woman's  department  by 
any  means.  As  for  the  architects  themselves,  one  said 
to  me,  "  Its  fault  is  one  which  makes  it  especially  suita- 
ble for  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  to  be  used — it  is 

102 


chaste  and  timid."  To  my  lay  eyes  it  is  far  more  cred- 
itable as  a  work  of  art  than  the  more  pretentious  Gov- 
ernment Building,  and  than  many  of  the  buildings  put 
up  as  headquarters  by  and  for  the  various  States. 

The  Woman's  Building  is  388  feet  long  and  199  feet 
wide,  with  a  floor  space  of  about  three  and  one-third 
acres.  Though  it  was  the  first  of  the  great  palaces 
to  take  shape  upon  the  grounds,  and  long  ago  seemed 
finished,  the  fact  is  that  it  is  to  boast  a  roof  garden, 
with  beautiful  palms  and  a  fountain,  all  enclosed  by  the 
heavy  open  railing  which  completes  and  crowns  the 
walls.  Miss  Enid  Yandall,  of  Louisville,  of  whom  it  is 
said  that  she  is  "conspicuous  socially,"  modelled  the 
caryatides  which  support  the  roof  railing.  Miss  Alice 
Rideout,  of  San  Francisco,  is  the  sculptress  who,  in  com- 
petition, won  the  contract  to  decorate  the  attic  cornice. 
Another  sculptress,  the  same  whose  statue  in  butter  at 
the  Philadelphia  Centennial  Exposition  was  much  talked 
of,  will  be  recalled  to  mind  by  a  statue  in  marble  hap- 
pily completed  before  her  death,  which  recently  took 
place  in  Italy.  A  great  deal  of  the  interior  decoration 
of  the  building,  much  of  which  will  be  carved  work,  is 
being,  or  will  be,  done  by  women.  There  is  a  pretty 
rivalry  among  the  States  in  this  regard.  Of  course  it  is 
understood  that  there  is  a  commission  of  women  at  work 
in  every  State,  and  that  there  are  auxiliary  committees 
of  these  State  boards  in  almost  every  county  of  almost 
every  State.  Panels  are  being  carved  by  women  all  over 
the  country,  and  certain  rooms  in  the  building  are  to 
be  not  only  decorated,  but  finished,  as  to  their  interior 
wood-work,  by  the  women  of  certain  States  whose  boards 
have  applied  for  the  coveted  privilege. 

This  work  will  be  made  typical  or  characteristic  of 

163 


each  commonwealth  which  engages  in  it,  either  by  the 
use  of  materials  for  which  the  State  is  noted,  or  by  the 
designs  for  the  decorative  effects.  California,  for  in- 
stance, will  wall  and  ceil  a  room  with  red-wood  orna- 
mented by  women.  The  women  of  New  York  will  fin- 
ish the  library,  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  of  the  rooms. 
In  Cincinnati  about  one  hundred  of  the  most  prominent 
women  have  united  to  complete  another  room.  West 
Virginia,  Indiana,  and  other  States  are  rivals  at  this 
gracious  task,  and  many  of  the  workers  are  quite  mys- 
terious about  what  they  intend  to  do.  It  is  known,  how- 
ever, that  Tennessee  will  wainscot  the  great  main  vesti- 
bule in  marble  from  her  quarries.  All  over  the  land  the 
women,  even  including  some  Indian  wives  and  daugh- 
ters, are  employed  in  the  making  of  beautiful  hangings, 
some  of  them  richly  embroidered,  for  the  doors  and 
windows. 

There  was  a  woman's  department  or  branch  at  the 
New  Orleans  Cotton  Centennial,  and  women  were  ac- 
tively concerned  in  the  last  Universal  Exposition  at 
Paris,  but  there  is  no  precedent  for  the  conspicuous- 
ness  and  prerogatives  of  womankind  at  this  next  great 
Fair.  I  think  there  never  was  a  building  set  apart  at  a 
world's  exposition  for  the  display  of  woman's  work  ex- 
clusively, and  James  Dredge,  member  of  the  Royal 
Commission  for  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  at  the  Chi- 
cago Exposition,  says  so  positively  in  a  report  of  his 
lecture  on  our  Fair  in  London.  The  women  commis- 
sioners boast  that  they  are  the  first  feminine  officials 
ever  commissioned  by  Congress.  They  treasure  formi- 
dable parchment  commissions- — of  which  all  women 
should  be  as  proud  as  they.  They  encountered  a  se- 
rious obstacle  at  the  threshold  of  their  work.  The  sis- 

164 


terhood  of  artists,  artisans,  and  wage -earners  generally 
included  many  women  who  objected  to  the  display  of 
woman's  work  except  in  contrast  and  competition  with 
the  best  that  men  have  accomplished  in  the  same  lines. 
But  it  was  early  seen  that  the  women  will  at  Chicago 
enjoy  a  double  opportunity  to  display  their  achieve- 
ments. They  may  exhibit  with  the  general  army  of 
contestants  in  all  the  other  departments.  Moreover,  the 
women  are,  by  act  of  Congress,  represented  by  persons 
of  their  own  sex  on  every  jury  of  award  which  is  to 
judge  of  exhibits  that  are  the  work  of  women,  in  whole 
or  in  part.  The  feminine  exhibitors  will  not  only  have 
the  right  to  a  twofold  display  of  their  work,  but  they 
will  be  urged  to  embrace  it,  for  the  commission  will 
strive  to  get  something  equally  good  from  every  woman 
who  shows  anything  in  any  other  department  of  the 
Fair.  It  is  not  yet  decided  whether  the  exhibit  in  the 
Woman's  Building  will  be  competitive  within  itself  or  not. 
The  collection  in  the  Woman's  Building  will  be  ex- 
ceedingly interesting,  and,  in  part,  unique.  The  presen- 
tation in  the  Gallery  of  Honor  is  looked  forward  to  with 
delight  and  impatience.  This  Gallery  of  Honor  is  the 
central  hall  of  the  building,  and  runs  almost  its  entire 
length.  In  the  rooms  opening  into  it,  with  a  display 
that  will  partly  parallel  and  partly  augment  Professor 
Putnam's  ethnological  collection,  the  women  will  show 
that  their  sex  included  the  inventors  and  first  producers 
of  what  was  necessary  as  well  as  what  was  beautiful,  and 
that  men  only  took  up  their  work  when  it  became  prof- 
itable as  merchandise.  Here  will  be  exposed  to  view 
the  most  elementary  products  saved  from  the  rudest 
times  and  peoples  but  made  by  women — articles  of  pot- 
tery, clothing,  and  decorative  work.  The  Indian  wom- 

165 


en  of  New  Mexico  will  provide  the  gorgeous  hangings 
which  will  form  the  background  to  this  display. 

In  the  central  hall  itself  will  be  made  manifest  the 
high  development  of  all  the  arts  which  women  began  so 
rudely  and  have  followed  to  so  rich  a  fruition.  The 
most  beautiful  and  the  most  advanced  work  and  skill  of 
woman  will  be  exhibited  in  tapestry,  laces,  statuary,  and 
paintings.  There  will  be  reproductions  of  the  historic 
works  of  women  which  have  influenced  the  times  in 
which  they  lived — such  as  Elizabeth  Thompson's  first 
true  study  of  the  horse  in  motion  ;  such  as  the  extraor- 
dinary book  compiled  by  the  Abbess  Herrard  in  the 
twelfth  century,  which  was  an  epitome  of  nearly  all  the 
knowledge  of  that  date ;  and  such  as  the  famous  tapes- 
tries of  Matilda  of  Flanders,  which  have  been  accepted 
as  the  best  pictorial  representation  of  the  manners,  cos- 
tumes, arms,  and  accoutrements  of  her  time.  Thus  will 
be  illustrated,  as  never  before,  the  history  of  woman's 
work  in  all  ages. 

The  lady  managers  have  many  other  aims  besides  the 
completion  of  this  historical  aggregation.  They  mean 
to  emphasize  the  part  the  sex  has  taken  and  is  taking  in 
philanthropy.  They  will  gather  statistics  and  records 
from  every  society  for  the  increase  of  the  happiness  of 
women.  This  subject  has  already  been  found  to  be  full 
of  surprises,  such  as  the  discovery  that  there  are  schools 
for  the  technical  training  of  woman  in  Italy,  and  most 
interesting  and  astonishing  news  of  women's  preroga- 
tives and  progress  in  Sweden.  With  nearly  all  notable 
works  or  records  it  is  hoped  to  give  portraits  of  the 
women  concerned,  so  that  there  will  be  a  grand  collec- 
tion of  the  counterfeit  presentments  of  distinguished 
and  worthy  women. 

166 


If  their  plans  do  not  fail,  the  very  doors  of  the  build- 
ing, at  the  main  entrance,  will  begin  the  record  of  wom- 
an's triumphs,  for  they  will  be  fac-similes  of  the  famous 
bronze  doors  of  the  Strasburg  Cathedral.  These  were 
made  by  Sabina  von  Steinbach,  the  talented  lieutenant 
of  the  architect,  to  whose  work  is  ascribed  the  power  of 
having  influenced  in  a  beautiful  way  the  character  of 
later  architecture.  The  doors  are  to  be  copied  in  papier- 
mache,  by  some  woman  selected  either  by  the  German 
commission  or  the  national  woman's  board. 

There  will  be  maintained  in  the  building  a  fully 
equipped  hospital,  with  physicians  and  trained  nurses 
in  attendance — not  merely  an  exhibit,  but  a  real  work- 
ing hospital  as  well.  The  London  Training-school  for 
Nurses  will  send  skilled  graduates  and  all  the  equip- 
ments of  a  complete  modern  hospital.  An  investigation 
is  being  prosecuted  into  all  well-attested  news  and  rec- 
ords of  all  the  unusual  vocations  women  have  followed 
or  are  pursuing  to-day,  as  sea-captains  or  pilots,  locomo- 
tive engineers,  blacksmiths,  and  the  rest.  Especially  in- 
teresting will  be  the  exhibit  from  Kane  County,  Illinois, 
which  is  thought  to  have  been  the  first  county  in  any  of 
our  States  in  which  women  were  appointed  as  deputies 
to  the  elective  officers,  and  performed  such  duties  of  the 
sheriff,  the  county  clerk,  the  treasurer,  and  the  others, 
as  deputies  are  commonly  intrusted  with. 

In  the  library  will  be  gathered  all  the  books  which 
women  have  written — so  far  as  such  a  collection  is  pos- 
sible. The  ladies  at  Chicago  bid  the  ungallant  and  un- 
sophisticated part  of  the  masculine  public  to  prepare 
itself  for  the  discovery  that,  so  far  from  woman's  book- 
writing  being  confined  to  fiction  in  prose  and  verse,  it 
includes  a  large  proportion  of  works  on  nearly  all  the 

167 


arts  and  sciences — even  embracing  three  volumes  of  such 
literature  as  might  be  expected  from  a  young  free-think- 
ing woman  in  France.  But,  after  all,  it  is  not  necessary 
to  go  as  far  as  the  ocean's  width  for  that,  since,  I  have 
heard,  an  American  newspaper  for  the  promulgation  of 
advanced  ideas  is  now  edited  by  some  young  women, 
to  whom  it  descended  from  their  father. 

A  very  interesting  and  valuable  work  that  is  said  not 
to  have  been  attempted  before  in  America  is  the  collec- 
tion and  classification  of  all  the  flora  of  our  country. 
The  women  of  every  part  of  the  Union — strongest  in 
numbers  in  the  South  and  West — are  preparing  to  con- 
tribute to  this  unique  display,  and  especial  wonders  are 
expected  from  Colorado,  which  is  not  only  rich  in  floral 
ornament,  but  possesses  two  women  who  have  long  been 
famous  for  their  art  in  preserving  and  preparing  flowers 
that  never  lose  their  colors  or  naturalness  in  the  process. 

Elsewhere  I  have  told  of  the  showing  of  fine  needle- 
work which  will  be  made  by  the  pupils  of  a  noted  school 
in  Athens,  of  which  the  Queen  of  Greece  is  an  enthusi- 
astic patroness.  This  exhibit  may  go  somewhere  else 
than  to  the  Woman's  Building,  but  there  is  no  lack  of 
titled  women  who  are  directly  interested  in  the  depart- 
ment under  the  care  of  the  lady  managers.  In  England 
one  of  the  Queen's  daughters,  the  Princess  Christian,  is 
at  the  head  of  the  body  which  is  to  show  the  work 
of  British  women  at  the  Fair.  The  Baroness  Burdett- 
Coutts  is  also  a  member  of  that  commission.  The 
Queen  of  the  Belgians  is  at  the  head  of  the  woman's 
commission  in  her  own  country,  and  in  Germany  the 
commission  is  directed  by  a  princess  of  the  reigning 
blood.  Lady  Aberdeen,  who  will  undertake  the  man- 
agement of  the  Irish  village  on  the  Exposition  Grounds, 

168 


GENERAL  VIEW   OF  THE   FAIR 


is  also  preparing  an  elaborate  collection  of  specimens  of 
the  handiwork  of  Irish  women  for  the  woman's  depart- 
ment. The  Queen  of  Italy  will  surpass  all  the  other 
titled  and  crowned  heads,  in  graciousness,  at  least,  by 
exhibiting  her  very  famous  private  collection  of  laces. 
She  will  also  send  over  the  crown  laces — a  part  of  the 
State  treasure  never  yet  seen  outside  of  Italy. 

There  is  to  be  a  Children's  Home  at  the  Exposition, 
and  its  promoters  say  that  then,  for  the  first  time  at 
such  an  exposition,  will  children's  interests  receive  full 
representation.  The  Children's  Home  is  designed  to 
give  mothers  perfect  freedom  while  visiting  the  Fair 
with  babies  that  could  not  be  left  at  home.  The  home 
will  be  close  to  the  Woman's  Building.  There  will  be 
made  clear  the  best  ideas  upon  sanitation,  diet,  educa- 
tion, and  amusements  for  children.  "A  series  of  mani- 
kins will  be  so  dressed  as  to  represent  the  manner  of 
clothing  infants  in  the  different  countries  of  the  world." 
The  best  costumes  will  be  discussed,  and  so  will  their 
sleeping  accommodations,  with  lectures  upon  the  devel- 
opment of  the  child's  mental  and  moral  nature.  In  one 
room  will  be  given  lectures,  illustrated  by  the  stereopti- 
con,  about  life  in  foreign  countries  for  the  older  children. 
Kindergartners  will  be  the  lecturers,  and  will  take  the 
children  to  see  the  exhibits  from  the  countries  lectured 
about.  These  kindergarten  teachers  will  eagerly  seize 
this  chance  to  prove  to  parents  that  they  can  bring  hap- 
piness to  children  while  the  little  ones  unconsciously 
imbibe  valuable  knowledge.  There  will  be  a  creche  in 
charge  of  experienced  nurses  where  tender  infants  may 
be  left.  There  will  be  a  playground  surrounded  by 
booths  for  the  sale  of  the  toys  of  all  nations.  There 
will  be  a  fountain  in  the  playground,  with  a  pool  for  the 

169 


sailing  of  little  boats;  but  the  best  playground,  it  is 
hoped,  will  be  the  great  flat  roof,  all  set  about  with 
trees  and  flowers,  made  gay  by  birds  and  butterflies, 
rendered  safe  by  an  enclosing  net  of  wire,  and  yet  free 
even  for  kite-flying.  Contributions  for  the  execution  of 
these  plans  are  greatly  needed  by  the  lady  managers, 
whose  treasurer  is  Mrs.  George  L.  Dunlap,  of  328  Dear- 
born Avenue,  Chicago. 

The  statute  creating  the  Board  of  Lady  Managers 
gave  them  wide  liberty  to  "  have  general  charge  and 
management  of  all  interests  of  women  in  connection 
with  the  Exposition."  Mrs.  Palmer  considered  it  quite 
within  these  bounds  to  procure  for  the  women  who  will 
visit  Chicago  "good,  clean,  safe  homes  at  reasonable 
rates."  Mrs.  Matilda  B.  Carse,  the  financier  among  the 
Chicago  women,  submitted  a  plan  to  erect,  close  to  the 
Fair  Grounds,  some  buildings  capable  of  sheltering  5000 
women,  whose  apartments  should  contain  comfortable 
beds  and  toilet  conveniences,  while  refined  matrons 
should  be  appointed  to  look  after  the  unprotected  girls 
who  might  come.  The  plan  was  adopted,  and  a  stock 
company  has  been  formed  with  shares  at  $10  each,  and 
a  capital  stock  of  $150,000.  Among  the  directors  are 
Mrs.  Potter  Palmer,  Mrs.  Carse,  Mrs  Helen  M.  Barker, 
Mrs.  Charles  Henrotin,  Jun.,  Miss  Frances  Willard,  and 
Mrs.  George  L.  Dunlap. 

170 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE  HISTORY  OF  MAN  AND   THE  COLUMBUS  EXHIBIT 

AMONG  those  whose  lives  are  temporarily  given  over 
to  the  making  of  the  Exposition,  it  is  noticeable  that 
what  is  called  "  Professor  Putnam's  exhibit,"  is  counted 
upon  to  prove  very  remarkable  and  instructive,  as  well 
as  interesting  in  a  high  degree.  The  reference  is  to 
Professor  F.  W.  Putnam,  of  Harvard  University,  who  is 
chief  of  the  department  embracing  ethnology,  archae- 
ology, history,  cartography,  and  the  Latin- American 
bureau.  No  man  in  America  is  more  competent  to  un- 
dertake this  work,  and  he  is  bringing  enthusiasm  to  aid 
his  ability.  His  lieutenants  have  long  been  at  work  in 
many  distant  fields,  and  among  the  traces  of  prehistoric 
man,  as  well  as  the  habitations  of  our  aborigines  in  this 
country.  To  his  department  has  been  assigned  160,000 
square  feet  in  the  gallery  of  the  great  building  for  Man- 
ufactures and  Liberal  Arts,  as  well  as  a  strip  of  land 
looo  feet  long  and  from  100  to  200  feet  wide  in  the 
south-easterly  part  of  the  Fair  Grounds. 

In  the  section  devoted  to  archaeology  will  be  shown 
traces  of  man,  his  skeletons  and  handiwork,  which  have 
been  found  under  geological  conditions,  and  thus  prove 
his  existence  in  remote  periods.  Following  this  will  be 
shown  discoveries  connected  with  the  second  prehistoric 

s  171 


period  on  this  continent:  objects  from  shell -heaps, 
burial-places,  mounds,  earthworks,  ancient  pueblos,  cliff- 
houses,  caves,  and  the  ruined  cities  of  the  lands  to  the 
southward  of  us.  Models  of  the  most  interesting  earth- 
works and  mounds,  such  as  those  of  geometric  shapes 
in  Ohio,  the  great  mound  at  Cahokia,  Illinois  ;  Fort  An- 
cient, the  "  serpent  mound  "  of  Ohio,  and  other  remains 
will  be  shown.  It  is  hoped  and  believed  that  Wisconsin 
will  contribute  models  of  her  ancient  structures  of  this 
sort,  and  that  a  full  illustration  of  the  pueblos  and  cliff- 
dwellings  of  Colorado,  Arizona,  Utah,  and  New  Mexico 
will  be  made.  Moulds  are  being  taken  of  the  very  an- 
cient stone  structures  that  exist  in  Yucatan,  and  casts 
and  photographs  will  further  familiarize  us  with  them. 
One  such  structure,  "  the  Portal  of  Labna,"  will  serve  as 
an  imposing  entrance  to  a  section  of  the  exhibit.  The 
collection  of  the  Peabody  Museum  (Harvard)  Honduras 
Expedition  will  be  shown  here,  and  will  form  a  remark- 
able part  of  the  display. 

Professor  Putnam  hopes,  through  the  aid  of  the  for- 
eign governments,  to  exemplify  the  primitive  modes  of 
life,  customs,  and  arts  of  the  native  peoples  of  the  world, 
but  in  this  he  is  to  be  dependent  upon  the  interest  that 
others  will  show  in  the  subject.  For  his  own  part,  he  is 
bending  every  effort  to  render  the  American  branch  of 
this  subject  especially  complete,  and  to  display  it  so 
that  it  shall  attract  popular  interest.  The  American 
exhibit  will  be  on  the  strip  of  land  reserved  for  his  de- 
partment, where  will  be  shown  the  habitations  of  such 
native  American  tribes  as  can  DC  secured — "  a  living 
picture,"  as  he  writes,  "  of  the  typical  native  peoples  of 
different  parts  of  America;  each  family  to  be  living  in 
its  native  habitation ;  the  people  to  be  dressed  in  native 

172 


costume,  surrounded  by  characteristic  household  uten- 
.  sils,  implements,  and  weapons,  and  engaged  in  their 
native  occupations  and  manufactures."  Thus  will  be 
shown  the  peoples  who  were  in  America  when  Colum- 
bus made  his  voyages.  Through  the  co-operation  of 
the  Indian  Bureau  the  exhibition  of  members  of  our 
North  American  tribes,  with  their  habitations,  costumes, 
and  implements,  will  be  as  complete  as  it  is  possible  to 
make  it. 

In  an  interesting  newspaper  interview  Professor  Put- 
nam outlined  his  work,  beginning  with  an  exhibition  of  the 
first  traces  of  man  in  America,  and  the  flora  and  fauna  of 
the  time.  He  said  it  was  planned  to  show  skeletons  of 
the  mammoth  and  mastodon,  and  mounted  specimens 
of  northern  animals  living  at  that  period  far  south  of 
their  present  abode.  He  said  that  "  in  connection  with 
the  habitations  of  the  Eskimo,  models  of  men,  women, 
and  children  will  be  shown,  made  from  casts  taken  and 
colored  from  life  and  dressed  in  native  costumes.  These 
figures  will  be  made  to  illustrate  all  types  of  mankind. 
The  work  in  part  is  in  papier-mache,  with  the  figures 
draped  in  actual  garments."  Other  collections,  extend- 
ed and  enriched  by  such  models  made  from  life,  will 
•"  represent  all  the  principal  tribes  of  the  northern  part 
of  the  continent,  the  Indian  races  of  the  interior,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  West  Indies,  and  the  eastern  tribes 
of  North  America  at  the  time  of  Columbus,  the  native 
tribes  of  the  South-west,  those  of  Mexico,  Central 
America,  and  South  America,  in  all  cases  with  their 
habitations  and  costumes  and  arts  and  industries  ex- 
tensively shown." 

He  has  arranged  with  the  Peary  Expedition  to  Green- 
land for  models  of  Eskimos,  their  huts  and  equipments, 

173 


and  by  other  means  he  will  make  known  to  us  the 
Aleuts  and  their  modes  and  paraphernalia  of  life.  A 
great  part  of  the  exhibition  will  be  the  result  of  new 
explorations,  but  much  will  be  gathered  from  private 
collections. 

An  exhibit  in  another  branch  of  this  department's 
work  will  be  a  pioneer's  log -cabin,  characteristically 
furnished,  and  apparently  inhabited  by  a  frontiersman's 
family  of  a  century  ago,  clad  in  homespun,  and  engaged 
in  the  preparation  of  flax  and  in  spinning  and  weaving. 
When  it  is  understood  that  this  will  serve  but  as  a 
background  against  which  to  bring  out  the  changes  and 
improvements  that  have  taken  place  in  the  things  that 
most  intimately  influence  our  home  life,  the  magnitude 
of  this  display  will  be  appreciated.  The  evolution  of 
furniture,  tools,  and  clothing  will  be  illustrated,  and  there 
will  be  shown  originals,  copies,  and  models  of  notable 
inventions,  as  well  as  a  collection  of  portraits  of  distin- 
guished inventors.  American  history  will  get  its  share 
of  attention  and  illustration  in  a  display  of  busts,  por- 
traits, relics,  autographs,  and  the  like.  In  another  sec- 
tion "  a  complete  series  of  maps  of  the  world  will  be 
collected,  both  of  those  anterior  to  Columbus  and  of 
others  illustrating  discoveries  down  to  the  present  time." 
In  modern  maps,  the  wonderful,  almost  fascinating  prog- 
ress that  has  been  made  in  map-making  will  be  shown. 

The  "  section  of  physical  anthropology "  will  be  a 
valuable  as  well  as  novel  part  of  the  department  ex- 
hibit. Here  will  be  gathered  and  made  known  thou- 
sands of  measurements  and  special  notes  of  the  physical 
size  and  characteristics  of  members  of  the  various  native 
tribes,  of  the  school-children  in  our  cities,  and,  to  such 
extent  as  is  possible,  of  the  foreign  visitors  to  and  em- 

174 


ployes  at  the  Fair.  The  apparatus  used  in  such  an  in- 
vestigation will  be  exhibited,  the  methods  and  objects 
of  such  research  will  be  made  plain,  and  there  will  be 
obtained  valuable  data  "showing  the  importance  of 
such  investigations  in  relation  to  the  education  and 
physical  development  of  children." 

And  thus  we  come  to  the  chief  exhibit  of  the  Latin- 
American  Bureau,  under  the  able  supervision  of  Mr. 
William  E.  Curtis.  From  a  historical  point  of  view  the 
collection  of  Columbiana  by  this  bureau  will  be  the 
most  remarkable  exhibit  at  the  Fair,  as  well  as  one  of 
the  most  important  ever  made  upon  the  globe.  Con- 
gress authorized  the  expenditure  of  $35,000  in  securing 
the  collection,  with  the  understanding  that  it  would  be 
housed  in  a  building  which  should  exactly  reproduce 
the  picturesque  old  Moorish  structure  which  was  the 
Monastery  of  La  Rabida  at  Palos,  in  Spain,  where  Co- 
lumbus applied  for  food  and  shelter  for  himself  and  child 
after  the  Spanish  court  had  refused  to  outfit  him  for 
his  voyage  of  discovery.  "  Here,"  says  an  able  author- 
ity, "  he  found  an  asylum  while  developing  his  theories, 
and  it  was  through  the  intercession  of  the  prior  of  this- 
monastery  that  Queen  Isabella  consented  to  reconsider 
her  refusal  to  furnish  ships  and  money  for  the  voyage. 
It  was  here,  too,  that  Columbus  remained  while  prepar- 
ing his  little  fleet  for  the  memorable  expedition.  In 
the  chapel  of  this  monastery  he  attended  mass  on  the 
morning  of  the  day  he  sailed,  and  again  on  the  evening 
of  the  day  he  returned  from  the  discovery  of  the  New 
World."  The  building  is  to  be  upon  a  promontory  al- 
most surrounded  with  water,  so  as  to  be  as  safe  as  pos- 
sible against  conflagration  from  without,  and  the  Secre- 
tary of  War  is  to  detail  a  military  guard  to  protect  it 

i75 


otherwise.  Admiral  Luce  has  characterized  the  gather- 
ing of  the  Columbiana  as  "  the  most  important  historical 
movement  that  has  ever  taken  place  in  America."  The 
Spanish  Government  places  such  a  value  upon  it  that  it 
asked  permission  to  show  it  at  the  Columbus  Exposi- 
tion in  Madrid,  offering  to  pay  all  the  costs  of  packing, 
shipment,  and  redelivery  to  us,  and  the  Librarian  of  Con- 
gress has  applied  for  it  as  a  permanent  attraction  to  the 
new  Congressional  Library  Building  now  under  construc- 
tion in  Washington.  I  have  been  permitted  to  see  a 
letter  by  a  gentleman  deeply  interested  in  the  matter, 
in  which  he  states  concisely,  but  with  reverential  regard 
apparent  in  every  sentence,  something  of  the  scope  of  the 
exhibition.  "The  Government  of  the  United  States,"  he 
says,  "  through  the  Secretary  of  State,  has  formally  ap- 
plied to  the  governments  of  Spain,  Italy,  France,  Eng- 
land, and  Germany,  to  the  municipality  of  Genoa,  to  His 
Holiness  the  Pope,  and  to  the  Duke  of  Veragua,  the 
lineal  descendant  of  Columbus,  for  the  loan  of  manu- 
scripts, maps,  books,  charts,  and  other  objects  identified 
with  the  life  history  of  Columbus  and  the  discovery  and 
early  settlement  of  the  New  World.  These  include  the 
original  of  the  most  remarkable  contract  that  was  ever 
drawn,  in  which  the  sovereigns  of  Spain  guarantee  to 
Columbus  and  his  heirs  forever  one-eighth  part  of  all 
that  may  be  produced  of  any  character  whatever,  in  any 
lands  that  he  may  discover,  and  appoint  him  and  his 
descendants  perpetual  rulers  over  such  lands  with  the 
title  of  viceroy.  The  collection  will  contain  the  original 
commission,  signed  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  appoint- 
ing Columbus  '  Grand  Admiral  of  the  Ocean  Seas ;' 
the  originals  of  the  other  papers  relating  to  his  first  and 
subsequent  voyages ;  twenty-nine  manuscript  letters  in 

176 


P 


II 


his  own  hand  ;  the  manuscript  of  a  book  in  which  he  at- 
tempts to  prove  that  his  discovery  was  predicted  in  the 
Scriptures ;  his  last  will  and  testament ;  the  original 
drawing  of  his  coat  of  arms  ;  a  pen-and-ink  sketch  which 
he  drew  in  his  old  age  and  called  'The  Triumph  of 
Columbus/  The  collection  will  also  contain  his  letters 
to  his  native  city  of  Genoa,  the  breviary  which  Pope 
Alexander  VI.  gave  to  him  and  which  he  used  on  his 
later  voyages;  the  first  map  of  America,  made  by  Juan 
de  la  Cosa,  his  pilot ;  original  copies  of  his  letters  de- 
scribing his  most  important  voyage,  and  telling  of  the 
discovery  of  our  continent,  and  the  priceless  volumes 
which  he  carried  in  the  cabin  of  the  caraval  —  Marco 
Polo,  Imago  Mundi,  and  the  Cosmograpliia — whose  pages 
contain  manuscript  notes  in  his  own  hand.  .  .  .  The 
Government  of  Germany  sends  from  Nuremburg  the 
original  of  the  globe  of  Martin  Behaim,  and  the  Queen 
of  England  loans  the  Leonardo  da  Vinci  map  on  which 
the  name  'America  '  first  appears." 

Quite  modern  and  apart  from  all  these  things  in  his- 
toric interest  is  a  collection  of  five  paintings  by  a  Rus- 
sian painter,  Aivasoffsky,  illustrating  five  incidents  in 
the  career  of  Columbus.  He  pleads  that  they  may  be 
shown  in  the  La  Rabida  Building,  and  it  is  quite  likely 
that  they  will.  They  are  said  to  be  remarkable,  and  so, 
indeed,  is  Aivasoffsky's  home  celebrity  as  a  marine 
painter. 

A  list  of  the  exhibits  to  be  made  in  La  Rabida  and 
elsewhere  as  illustrative  of  Columbus's  time,  voyages, 
and  discoveries,  would  be  too  long  to  give  here.  It  in- 
cludes maps,  charts,  globes,  nautical  instruments  ;  mod- 
els, paintings,  and  other  pictures  of  his  vessels  ;  portraits, 
autographs,  and  other  relics  of  the  persons  who  assisted 

177 


Columbus  or  are  connected  with  him  in  history;  fac- 
similes of  the  arms  and  armor  of  his  men  ;  assortments 
of  the  goods  he  used  for  barter,  such  as  hawk  bells,  beads, 
coins,  medals,  cloths,  crosses,  mirrors,  and  brass  articles ; 
pictures  showing  the  natives  of  America  as  they  were 
at  first  represented ;  the  Columbus  tombs,  monuments, 
and  statues,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  all  that  can  be 
thought  of  and  obtained. 

178 


CHAPTER   XVI. 
FOREIGN  NATIONS  AT  OUR   FAIR 

To  investigate  the  possibilities  of  the  foreign  exhib- 
its at  the  Columbian  Exposition,  when  I  was  on  the 
grounds  recently,  was  not  an  altogether  satisfactory 
task.  It  reminded  me  of  an  experience  a  fellow- re- 
porter had  when  we  were  boys,  and  he  wanted  to  hear 
from  good  old  Peter  Cooper  what  sort  of  neighbors  his 
were,  one  of  whom  had  blown  up  his  uncle  with  a  bomb. 

"Oh,  I  know  them  all,"  said  the  philanthropist,  "and 
they  are  all  nice  people.  What  sort  of  a  man  was  the 

elder ?  Oh,  he  was  a  nice  man,  a  very  nice  man. 

What  did  I  think  of  the  young  man?  Now,  he  was  a 
nice  man.  And  the  other  one  ?  Oh,  he  was  a  nice  man, 
too." 

Just  so,  when  I  inquired  what  sort  of  an  exhibit  Aus- 
tria or  Greece  would  make  at  the  Fair,  I  was  told  that 
each  would  be  fine ;  that  Germany's  would  be  grand, 
that  Italy's  would  be  quite  notable,  that  Norway  and 
Sweden  were  going  to  do  something  truly  remarkable, 
and  so  on  through  the  list.  And  there  I  sat,  with  my 
pencil  poised  and  my  pad  ready,  and  felt  just  as  my 
friend  did  when  Peter  Cooper  was  telling  about  his 
neighbors. 

Still,  there  was  some  reward  ;  indeed,  it  became  evi- 

179 


dent  to  me  that  the  instructiveness  and  brilliancy  of  the 
Exposition  will  be  drawn  from  abroad.  At  the  Phila- 
delphia Exposition  in  1876,  we  who  visited  it  stayed  at 
home  and  travelled  in  many  countries,  seeing  much  more 
than  most  actual  travellers  would  have  seen ;  and  one 
result  of  that  comparatively  small  fair  was  to  revolution- 
ize our  country  in  the  matter  of  house  decoration,  in  the 
use  of  rugs  and  hangings,  and  the  beautification  of  car- 
pets and  furniture. 

We  know  that  this  will  be  a  gigantic  exhibition,  as 
compared  with  that — a  truly  universal  one.  At  it  will  be 
the  display  of  no  less  than  forty-five  countries  and  colo- 
nies, the  principal  and  the  most  interesting  ones  in  the 
world.  The  reason  that  there  was  not  full  news  of  what 
each  nation  is  to  exhibit,  at  the  headquarters  of  so  ac- 
tive and  enthusiastic  a  master  of  the  field  as  Mr.  Walker 
Fearn,  the  chief  of  the  Foreign  Department,  was  a  man- 
ifold one.  In  the  first  place,  he  has  been  chiefly  con- 
cerned in  securing  the  attendance  and  co-operation  of 
the  nations;  and,  subordinated  to  that,  but  requiring 
more  work  and  time,  has  been  his  effort  to  meet  their 
demands  for  space,  or  rather  to  bring  about  some  equal- 
ity between  their  demands  and  the  space  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Commission.  The  minor  details  of  what  the  na- 
tions will  do  with  their  space  our  commissioners  abroad 
understand  very  well  and  the  foreign  commissioners  are 
perfectly  conversant  with,  yet  they  have  not  in  all  cases 
been  discussed  at  the  office  of  the  Department  of  For- 
eign Affairs. 

Japan  will  outdo  herself.  Practically  she  made  her- 
self known  to  the  world  at  the  Philadelphia  Centennial 
Exposition,  which  took  place  only  about  twenty  years, 
after  her  ports  were  thrown  open.  Her  most  notable 

180 


VIEW    FROM   ART   GALLERY 


exhibit  will  be  that  upon  the  Wooded  Island — a  large 
island  in  the  Lagoon  on  the  Columbian  Grounds.  The 
Japanese  commissioners  have  secured  the  northerly  end 
of  this  tract  as  the  site  of  their  exhibit.  There  they 
will  erect  a  great  temple  in  three  parts — a  main  body 
and  two  wings  —  symbolizing  the  Phoenix,  as  they  de- 
clare. It  will  be  solidly  built  of  wood  made  ready  in 
Japan,  and  set  up  by  Japanese  workmen  on  the  Fair 
Grounds.  In  one  wing  of  this  elaborate  and  gorgeous 
building  they  will  exhibit  articles  from  1000  to  4000 
years  old — their  old  bronzes,  arms,  armor,  and  what  may 
be  called  the  beginnings  of  their  famous  work  in  pottery 
and  lacquer.  Some  of  this,  however,  will  illustrate  arts 
which  they  have  lost,  and  will  consist  of  exhibits  of  ex- 
tremely great  value.  In  the  other  wing  they  will  show 
Japanese  products  400  years  old  and  more,  illustrative 
of  the  condition  of  their  people  when  Columbus  set  out 
to  discover  their  country,  for  it  was  the  tales  about 
Cathay  (Indo-China),  and  of  a  wonderful  island  near  by 
— which  was,  in  all  likelihood,  Japan  —  that  strongly  in- 
fluenced Columbus.  Indeed,  it  is  said  that  when  he 
reached  Cuba  he  called  it  by  the  name  by  which  Japan 
was  called  by  the  travellers  whose  works  he  had  read. 
In  the  main  or  middle  building  the  Japanese  will  show 
goods  characteristic  of  their  country  at  the  present  time. 
Upon  the  whole  north  end  of  the  Wooded  Island  they 
will  expend  their  skill  and  ingenuity  in  the  cultivation 
of  flowers,  dwarfed  trees,  and  those  landscape  and  gar- 
den effects  in  the  production  of  which  they  are  unri- 
valled. The  temple  and  the  horticultural  work  they 
will  present  to  Chicago,  to  remain  permanent  orna- 
ments of  Jackson  Park;  and  this,  by -the -way,  is  the 
only  work  of  any  sort  that  forms  part  of  the  Exposition 
T  181 


which  is  absolutely  certain  to  remain  after  the  Fair 
closes.  The  art  galleries  may  or  may  not — that  is  not 
determined ;  but  the  gift  of  Japan  has  been  accepted  by 
the  city  authorities. 

It  is  thought  that  the  Japanese  may  introduce  a  few 
hundred  jinrikishas,  or  man-drawn  carriages,  in  which  to 
carry  visitors  about  the  grounds. 

It  was  long  believed  that  the  Japanese  exhibit  would 
be  the  most  peculiar  and  interesting,  but  it  is  now 
thought  that  the  Russian  may  surpass  it.  Nowhere 
has  royalty  shown  so  deep  and  active  an  interest  in  this 
Exposition  as  in  Russia.  Hers  will  truly  be  an  impe- 
rial exhibit.  It  is  very  remarkable,  and  yet  it  is  a  fact, 
that  never  before  have  the  Russians  been  so  stirred  by 
any  such  project.  The  old  and  warm  friendship  be- 
tween the  two  countries,  newly  strengthened  by  the 
sending  of  American  ships  to  relieve  Russia's  famine- 
stricken  peasantry,  is  partly  the  cause  of  this ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  there  have  been  political  crises  at  the 
times  of  other  expositions  in  which  she  might  have 
taken  a  considerable  part.  The  collection  of  exhibits 
in  Russia  goes  on  with  a  will,  and  the  Czar  is  sending 
to  the  heart  of  Asia,  where  he  has  recently  thrust  the 
government  railroads,  to  enrich  the  store.  There  will 
be  a  complete  exhibit  to  illustrate  Russian  life  in  town 
and  country ;  there  will  be  wonderful  bronzes,  a  most 
remarkable  array  of  paintings,  of  minerals  from  the  Ural 
Mountains,  of  the  unrivalled  Russian  leather-work,  and 
of  the  varied  articles  of  manufacture  in  which  that  coun- 
try has  made  such  recent  great  strides. 

The  intense  rivalry  between  the  Germans  and  the 
French  augurs  well  for  the  Columbian  Fair.  Each 
country  is  intent  upon  surpassing  the  exhibits  of  the 

182 


other.  The  French  never  before  made  such  an  effort  to 
win  credit  abroad.  They  may  be  called  professional 
exhibit -makers  —  almost  professional  "  expositioners." 
They  make  no  "  boom,"  as  we  would  say,  about  what 
they  are  doing,  but  their  commissioners  promise  the 
best  that  the  country's  resources  make  possible.  The 
Government  will  exhibit  its  treasures  from  Sevres  and 
Gobelin,  and  the  Limoges  collection  will  be  splendid. 
Well  aware  of  the  value  of  our  gilded  American  patron- 
age of  French  art  in  the  past,  they  will  make  perhaps  as 
fine  an  exhibit  of  paintings  and  sculptures  as  they  ever 
showed  at  home.  The  German  contributions  will  be 
quite  as  notable.  Germany  did  not  exhibit  in  Paris  in 
1889,  and,  indeed,  this  will  be  her  first  great  official  ex- 
hibition on  neutral  soil.  Her  commissioners  are  working 
with  splendid  energy.-  The  exhibition  by  Herr  Krupp, 
the  gun -maker,  will  represent  an  outlay  of  nearly 
$1,000,000.  He  will  show  a  i3O-ton  gun — the  largest 
rifle  ever  made.  Some  of  the  monstrous  and  marvel- 
lous machines — notably  a  great  trip-hammer,  such  as  is 
used  at  his  works  —  will  form  parts  of  his  exhibition. 
The  very  best  features  of  the  Frankfort  electrical  exhi- 
bition of  a  year  ago  are  promised.  This  collection  of 
inventions  and  adaptations  of  electrical  machinery  and 
devices  astonished  the  world,  and  visitors  from  America 
acknowledged  that  the  Germans  had  outstripped  us  in 
this  field  of  endeavor.  They  have  been  especially  bold 
and  ingenious  in  their  uses  of  the  electric  light  for  showy 
purposes — as  in  theatres,  for  instance — and  the  accom- 
plishment of  brilliant  and  startling  stage  effects.  This 
they  will  show  in  Chicago.  It  is  believed  that  the 
Siemens-Holske  house  of  electricians  will  make  a  great 
exhibit,  notably  of  their  powerful  search-lights,  whose 

183 


use  for  grand  fete -night  effects  upon  the  grounds  is 
counted  upon.  Germany's  remarkable  progress  in  man- 
ufactures will  be  exemplified  thoroughly.  If  Austria's 
demands  for  space  form  any  criterion  by  which  to  judge 
of  her  intended  display,  it  will  be  a  grand  one.  Her 
commission  is  headed  by  the  Archduke  Charles  Louis, 
the  brother  of  the  Emperor.  It  is  promised  that  this 
great  country  will  exhibit  at  least  those  evidences  of 
progress  which  render  Vienna  the  easterly  Paris. 

The  exhibition  of  delicate  and  beautiful  needle-work, 
and  of  diaphanous  cloths  and  tissues,  by  the  kingdom  of 
Greece  will  be  among  her  most  attractive  contributions. 
The  best  of  those  handiworks  by  women,  which  the 
Queen  encourages  by  her  interest  in  the  famous  Ergas- 
terion  in  Athens,  will  be  shown.  Greece  also  promises 
a  complete  collection  of  casts  of  her  noble  and  incom- 
parable ancient  sculptures,  figures,  friezes,  and  other  re- 
mains, including  many  of  Schliemann's  discoveries. 

Sweden  and  Norway  are  running  a  race  to  outdo  one 
another  at  Chicago.  Both  will  exhibit  panoramas  and 
paintings  of  scenery  calculated  to  induce  travellers  to 
go  to  their  countries  rather  than  to  Switzerland.  The 
Norwegian  fisheries  exhibit  will  be  very  interesting,  and 
her  display  of  furs,  peltries,  and  woods  will  be  notable. 
Holland  will  do  nothing  finer  than  the  showing  of  the 
products,  natives,  and  modes  of  life  in  her  colonies,  led 
by  Java,  though  the  Dutch  will  attract  attention  by 
their  exhibition  of  watch -making,  of  art  works,  and  of 
floriculture. 

Italy,  hindered  by  the  affair  at  New  Orleans  and  by 
other  obstacles,  will  make  no  official  exhibit,  but  our 
World's  Fair  commissioners  in  that  country  promise  a 
notable  showing  of  artistic  and  beautiful  works.  The 

184 


Italian  people  are  fully  alive  to  the  opportunity,  though 
the  Government  is  quiescent.  Turkey's  exhibit,  very 
novel  and  interesting,  is  in  the  nature  of  a  concession 
and  not  an  imperial  undertaking.  Spain's  historical 
contributions  will  be  remarkable.  The  most  important 
of  the  exhibits  at  their  Quadri-centennial  or  Columbus 
Exposition  will  be  sent  to  our  Fair,  and  will  form  an 
extensive  display.  The  Spanish  commission  is  very  ac- 
tive, and  has  stirred  up  private  enterprise  at  home  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  guarantee  an  interesting  exhibition. 
The  English  seem  principally  actuated  by  the  idea 
that  we  do  not  know  and  appreciate  their  art,  and  that 
if  we  did,  so  much  of  our  money  would  not  go  to  the 
continent  of  Europe.  Thus  inspired,  they  will  make  a 
very  great  and  remarkable  display  of  paintings  and 
sculpture,  quite  apart  from  their  usual  exhibit  of  manu- 
factures and  inventions.  Many  of  Great  Britain's  colo- 
nies are  hard  at  work  in  preparation  for  the  Exposition. 
Canada  will  send  ample  proof  of  the  importance  of  her 
farms,  forests,  mines,  and  fisheries.  India  will  make  no 
governmental  display,  but  individual  exhibitors  will 
show  a  wide  variety  of  native  manufactures,  especially 
in  those  lines  in  which  they  excel  almost  the  entire 
world,  the  making  of  silks,  rugs,  and  muslins  especially. 
A  showing  that  is  promised  to  be  exquisite  and  in  the 
nature  of  a  revelation  to  us,  is  promised  from  India. 
New  South  Wales  leads  all  the  Australian  colonies  in 
her  anxiety  to  "  show  off"  well  at  Chicago.  She  applied 
for  1,000,000  square  feet,  or  more  than  three  times  the 
space  awarded  to  the  mother-country.  Fifty  thousand 
square  feet  is  the  area  that  has  been  set  aside  for  this 
contribution.  The  presentation  will  be  of  the  natural 
resources  of  the  country,  her  wool,  minerals,  and  raw 

185 


wealth,  a  showing  designed  to  attract  immigration. 
Queensland,  Victoria,  and  New  Zealand  will  send  exhib- 
its, but  not  officially. 

Far  away  Ceylon  will  seize  the  opportunity  which  this 
Exposition  will  offer  to  do  for  herself  what  Japan  did  in 
Philadelphia  in  1876.  Ceylon  will  be  thereafter  more 
talked  about,  if  her  plans  prosper,  than  ever  before.  One 
remarkable  Ceylonese  exhibit  will  be  a  reproduction  of 
the  temple  of  Amarapoora — a  place  in  the  interior  of  the 
island.  This  temple,  now  overgrown  with  giant  trees, 
has  its  roof  upheld  by  the  trunks  and  tusks  of  forty  or 
fifty  carved  white  elephants.  There  is  exquisite  ara- 
besque work  on  the  columns,  and  the  roof  itself  is  alto- 
gether charming  and  remarkable.  This  will  be  exhibited 
merely  as  a  specimen  of  the  native  architecture.  Other 
temples,  pavilions,  and  pagodas  will  be  recreated  on  the 
Fair  Grounds  to  illustrate  the  beauties  of  the  architecture, 
and  to  serve  as  booths  and  bazaars.  The  importance  of 
the  exhibit  otherwise  will  be  mainly  in  its  agricultural 
department.  The  Ceylonese  believe  that  they  grow  the 
finest  tea  in  the  world,  and  it  has  been  distinguished  for 
fetching  the  highest  prices  in  London — £30  being  paid 
for  one  lot  if  my  memory  serves  me.  In  a  building  of 
peculiar  design,  one  exhibitor  will  sell  this  tea  at  a  price 
to  cover  merely  the  cost  of  the  commodity  and  the  hire 
of  the  native  servants,  who,  habited  as  at  home,  will  wait 
upon  the  people.  The  tea  is  grown  at  a  great  elevation 
above  the  sea,  and  the  mode  of  cultivating  both  it  and 
the  coffee-plant  will  be  shown  on  the  Fair  Grounds  with 
native  farmers  at  their  accustomed  toil. 

The  exhibits  of  the  South  American  republics  and  col- 
onies will  be  so  remarkable  as  to  deserve  a  chapter  by 
themselves.  Argentine  Republic,  Brazil,  British  Guiana, 

1 86 


British  Honduras,  Colombia,  Costa  Rica,  Cuba,  the 
Dutch  West  Indies,  Dutch  Guiana,  Guatemala,  Hayti, 
Honduras,  Jamaica,  Mexico,  Nicaragua,  and  Uruguay, 
all  are  preparing  to  show  their  resources,  products,  and 
industries,  and  many  of  them  will  surprise  the  majority 
of  visitors  to  the  Fair.  President  Diaz,  of  Mexico,  prom- 
ises a  complete  exhibition  of  the  progress  and  present 
condition  of  his  country.  Asked  to  show  the  wonderful 
ruins  and  remnants  of  other  civilizations  in  his  domain 
he  declined,  and  insisted  that  the  time  had  come  for 
Mexico  to  show  her  best  side,  her  present  prosperity 
and  cultivation.  Apart  from  the  official  exhibits  of 
these  countries,  and  in  connection  with  Professor  Put- 
nam's remarkable  ethnological  collection,  Mr.W.  E.Cur- 
tis, who  is  at  the  head  of  the  Latin-American  Bureau, 
promises  photographs  and  models  representing  types  of 
the  natives  from  the  Rio  Grande  to  Cape  Horn,  their 
habitations,  apparel,  weapons,  household  implements ; 
photographs  of  beasts,  games,  toys,  their  transportation 
facilities,  and,  embracing  the  peoples  of  the  present  day, 
these  same  things  and  their  education,  religions,  arts,  oc- 
cupations, resources,  and  products,  as  well  as  their  his- 
tory, heroes,  liberators,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  all  that 
is  instructive  and  interesting. 

Only  two  countries  of  note  —  Italy  and  Portugal — 
have  failed  to  accept  the  invitation  of  our  Government 
to  participate  in  the  Exposition.  In  another  chapter, 
describing  the  Midway  Plaisance,  I  have  told  of  the  curi- 
ous exhibitions  that  will  be  made  up  of  peasant  life  in 
Tunis,  Algiers,  Egypt,  Dahomey,  China,  Germany,  and 
other  countries. 

187 


CHAPTER   XVII 
THE   GALLERY   OF   FINE  ARTS 

THE  Gallery  of  Fine  Arts  at  the  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion is  regarded  by  the  architects  of  the  country  as  hav- 
ing reached  the  anticipations  of  those  who  are  aware 
that  in  all  recent  world's  fairs  it  has  been  sought  to 
make  that  building  a  perfect  example  of  each  nation's 
taste  and  progress  in  architecture.  Such  a  building 
must  be  more  solidly  built  than  the  others ;  it  must  be 
as  nearly  fire-proof  as  possible,  or  it  would  be  vain  to 
try  to  induce  painters,  sculptors,  and  owners  of  the 
finest  art  works  to  send  their  treasures  to  it.  It  follows 
that  this  one  among  all  the  buildings  is  oftenest  the 
one  that  is  preserved  as  a  memento  of  each  recur- 
ring exposition,  and  as  a  permanent  monument  of  the 
art  progress  of  the  nation  which  has  managed  the  Fair. 
It  is  therefore  natural  that  such  a  building  should  be 
the  subject  of  discriminating  judgment  when  the  work 
of  planning  the  Fair  is  distributed  among  the  architects, 
and  that  it  should  be  planned  with  great  and  loving 
care  by  him  who  is  chosen  to  design  it. 

This  task,  at  the  Columbian  Exposition,  fell  to  Mr. 
Charles  B.  Atwood,  of  New  York,  the  Designer-in-Chief 
of  the  Exposition.  In  the  unstinted  praise  that  his 
effort  has  drawn  from  the  leaders  in  his  own  profession 

iSS 


here  he  cannot  be  mistaken  in  anticipating  similar  plau- 
dits from  the  critics  of  the  world  at  large  when  all  are 
gathered  at  Chicago.  With  an  absence  of  envy,  and 
with  a  generosity  that  to  me  seems  extraordinary  among 
men  engaged  in  the  rivalries  of  a  pursuit  of  one  profes- 
sion, the  members  of  the  World's  Fair  advisory  council 
of  architects  seem  to  have  awarded  Mr.  Atwood  the 
palm,  and  have  vied  with  one  another  in  finding  terms 
in  which  to  praise  his  work.  Mr.  D.  H.  Burnham,  the 
Chief  of  Construction,  himself  a  famous  architect,  goes 
so  far  in  his  praise  of  the  building  as  to  predict  that  it 
will  one  day  be  made  permanent  in  marble. 

The  exterior  is  of  the  pure  Ionic  style,  the  details 
having  been  carried  out  in  the  strictest  and  most  aca- 
demical manner.  The  proportion  of  the  various  divis- 
ions of  the  work  have  been  adapted  from  those  of  the 
famous  temple  of  the  Erectheum  at  Athens,  but  the 
composition  of  the  general  masses  of  the  building  has 
been  treated  with  freedom  after  the  manner  of  the  schol- 
arly projcts  of  the  Academic  des  Beaux  Arts.  These  de- 
signs have  afforded  the  inspiration  which  has  moved  Mr. 
Atwood.  But  though  he  has  made  the  building  as  schol- 
arly as  possible,  it  yet  impresses  the  layman  most  by  its 
chasteness  and  proportion.  The  main  building  is  500 
feet  long  by  320  feet  wide;  its  annexes  are  each  136  feet 
wide  by  220  feet  long,  and  are  connected  with  the  cen- 
tral pavilion  by  colonnades.  The  walls,  both  interior 
and  exterior,  are  built  of  brick  and  the  roof  construction 
is  of  iron,  thus  giving  a  permanent  character  to  the  edi- 
fice, and  reducing  to  a  minimum  all  risk  of  harm  to  the 
works  of  art  which  will  be  shown  there. 

In  the  colonnades  and  great  entrance  loggias  are 
sculptured  friezes  after  the  manner  of  the  frieze  of  the 

189 


Parthenon  at  Athens.  On  the  attic  story  of  the  great 
entrances  are  heroic  statues,  in  full  relief  against  the 
pilasters,  representing  the  arts  and  sciences.  Between 
these,  in  the  panels,  are  portrait  busts  of  the  masters  of 
art,  while  crowning  the  dome  of  the  main  pavilion  is  a 
great  winged  figure  following  the  fashion  of  the  Victory 
at  Samothrace.  All  about  the  exterior  colonnades  will 
be  replicas  in  large  size  of  the  most  celebrated  antiques. 
The  dome,  covered  by  a  pattern  as  of  scales,  will  be 
white  like  the  building.  At  night  the  cornice-line  above 
the  colonnades  will  be  crowned  with  candelabra  bearing 
flambeaux,  from  which,  driven  about  by  the  breezes, 
will  leap  great  bulky,  ragged  masses  of  flame. 

The  interior  of  the  main  pavilion  contains  a  court  100 
feet  wide,  running  north  and  south  and  crossing  one  of 
the  same  dimensions  lying  east  and  west.  At  the  point 
of  intersection  of  these  courts  is  a  great  dome  125  feet 
high  and  75  feet  in  diameter,  and  forming  a  sort  of  trib- 
une in  the  centre  of  the  building.  Here  will  be  dis- 
played a  few  of  the  best  works  of  sculpture.  All  the 
sculptural  display  will  be  arranged  on  the  ground-floor 
of  these  great  courts.  Around  these  courts  run  gal- 
leries twenty-four  feet  above  the  floor,  twenty  feet  wide, 
and  lighted  by  great  central  skylights.  Under  these 
galleries,  in  alcoves,  will  be  displayed  all  the  sculptural 
bass-reliefs  and  casts  of  architectural  remains,  notably 
the  entire  collection  from  the  Trocadero  at  Paris,  dupli- 
cates of  which  have  been  presented  by  the  French  Gov- 
ernment to  the  Art  Institute  of  Chicago,  an  enterprising 
body  which  is  likely  to  become  the  envy  of  all  similar 
institutions  in  this  country,  so  great  will  be  the  prizes  it 
will  gain  after  the  termination  of  the  Fair. 

In  the  gallery-floor,  on  the  walls,  and  on  cross-screens 

190 


THE  ADMINISTRATION   BUILDING 


will  be  displayed  all  the  architectural  plans,  the  etch- 
ings, photographs,  and  prints  which  are  to  be  shown  in 
the  building.  The  picture-galleries  are  all  arranged  in 
the  four  angles  of  the  building.  They  are  thirty  feet  in 
height,  and  average  thirty  by  sixty  feet  of  floor  space. 
Numerous  doorways  permit  the  free  movement  of  the 
visitors.  In  the  annexes  the  easterly  pavilion  is  to  be 
entirely  occupied  by  the  French  collection,  which  will 
be  very  remarkable.  The  American  section,  being  in 
the  angle  which  is  contiguous  to  the  French  pavilion, 
will  exhibit  all  the  notable  French  paintings  owned  in 
America,  in  a  corridor  connecting  with  the  French  pa- 
vilion. The  westerly  pavilion  will  be  occupied  by  sev- 
eral of  the  foreign  peoples  whose  collections  are  much 
smaller.  Each  annex  has  a  central  dome  about  fifty  feet 
in  diameter,  and  galleries  are  arranged  in  varying  sizes 
in  each  pavilion.  The  cost  of  the  building  is  $800,000. 
Mr.  Halsey  C.  Ives,  the  chief  of  the  Department  of 
Fine  Arts,  is  admired  and  honored  by  all  his  associates 
in  the  management  of  the  Exposition  as  a  competent 
and  enthusiastic  chieftain  in  the  work.  He  is  very  hope- 
ful about  the  display  that  is  likely  to  result  from  his  en- 
ergetic labors.  His  aim  is  to  show  work  by  painters 
and  sculptors  who  are  not  known  here,  as  well  as  the 
best  that  has  been  done  by  the  world's  general  favor- 
ites ;  to  enlighten  us  all  upon  the  varieties  of  paintings 
that  the  world  offers,  and  yet  that  are  not  handled  by 
the  French  dealers.  To  this  end  he  went  up  into  Scan- 
dinavia and  to  Moscow,  as  well  as  to  the  lands  that  were 
certain  to  contribute  good  exhibits.  He  found,  among 
other  great  things,  a  treasure  in  Russia.  A  collector 
there  named  Trajakoff,  a  wealthy  devotee  of  art,  has  a 
gallery  of  paintings  (all  of  Russian  work)  which  is  worth 
u  191 


making  a  pilgrimage  to  see.  One  remarkable  part  of 
his  collection  is  a  number  of  paintings  by  a  man  who 
had,  as  Mr.  Ives  said,  "  discovered  everything  that  is 
true  in  the  impressionist  school."  He  had  never  been 
out  of  Russia,  and  he  cannot  have  been  prosperous,  for 
some  of  his  work  is  upon  such  stuff  as  window-shades 
are  made  of,  but  it  is  fine,  as  all  will  discover  if  Mr.  Ives's 
hopes  of  bringing  it  here  are  satisfied.  Mr.  Ives  thinks 
that  the  art  display  will  discover  perhaps  half  a  dozen 
men  in  Denmark,  Norway,  and  Sweden  whose  pictures 
will  astonish  us.  One  Kroyer,  a  Dane,  one  of  the  strong- 
est portrait-painters  in  the  world,  is  among  these.  Ma- 
kowsky,  whose  "Wedding  Feast"  was  greatly  admired 
here,  is  painting  a  great  historic  canvas  for  the  Emperor 
of  Russia,  who  is  going  to  allow  him  to  send  it  to  our 
Fair.  It  represents  a  celebrated  scene  in  Moscow,  where 
the  ladies  are  pictured  bringing  their  jewels  to  the  offi- 
cials to  enable  the  Government  to  prolong  a  war  against 
their  enemies. 

Mr.  Ives  has  assurances  from  the  artists  and  art  asso- 
ciations abroad  that  a  number  of  countries  are  going  to 
make  splendid  exhibits ;  but  the  Governments  have  ev- 
erything to  say  in  this  regard,  and  will  make  their  own 
selections,  so  that  at  the  last  moment,  perhaps,  such  'a 
nation  as  Russia,  for  instance,  may  decide  to  send  only 
its  palace  collections,  leaving  the  more  novel,  varied,  and 
often  far  more  admirable  work  of  individual  artists  at 
home.  Holland  may  not  send  above  300  pictures,  but 
they  will  represent  the  best  work  that  has  been  done  in 
that  country  in  the  past  fifteen  years.  Spain  and  Italy 
are  interested  and  active,  from  their  thrones  to  the  stu- 
dios, and  cannot  fail  to  make  fine  displays.  France  will 
offer  a  better  exhibition  of  her  modern  work  than  has 

192 


MAINE   STATE    BUILDING 


been  made  in  her  own  country.  She  used  93,000  square 
feet  in  her  Paris  Exposition  in  1889,  and  actually  applied 
for  90,000  square  feet  at  Chicago.  Mr.  Ives,  believing 
that  quality  rather  than  quantity  was  what  was  desired, 
allowed  only  29,000  square  feet  to  the  French  exhibition. 
By  thus  limiting  the  allotments  of  space,  he  makes  it 
possible  to  show  the  best  work  of  twenty-two  countries 
instead  of  that  of  seven  or  eight. 

Japan,  whose  people  never  made  a  display  in  the  art 
section  of  an  exposition  abroad,  will  give  one  of  the 
most  unique  exhibitions  in  Chicago.  The  commission- 
ers from  Japan  told  Mr.  Ives  they  feared  they  could  not 
meet  the  requirements  of  our  classification,  so  greatly 
did  their  art  works  differ  from  ours.  His  reply  delight- 
ed them  intensely.  He  said  he  greatly  desired  them  to 
make  a  presentation  uninfluenced  by  a  Western  rule  or 
limitation,  and  that  they  might  put  any  interpretation 
that  they  wished  upon  our  classification.  The  result  is 
that  the  Emperor  will  permit  the  display  of  works  never 
seen  out  of  his  country.  These  will  take  up  2200  square 
feet  of  space. 

193 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

NINE  ACRES   OF   ELECTRICAL   EXHIBITS 

THE  Department  of  Electricity  is  to  collect  the  con- 
tributions of  the  world  to  its  demonstration  of  the  prog- 
ress of  electric  science  in  a  building  which  will  be  likely 
to  attract  an  extraordinary  number  of  sight-seers.  The 
shelter  for  this  exhibit  is  one  of  the  very  beautiful 
buildings  of  the  Exposition.  Its  architects  were  Messrs. 
Van  Brunt  &  Howe,  of  Kansas  City.  It  is  690  feet 
long  by  345  feet  wide,  of  Italian  Renaissance  in  style, 
and  elaborately  finished  with  many  towers.  The  prin- 
cipal entrance  on  the  south  side  will  have  a  noble  and 
gorgeously  decorated  open  vestibule,  covered  by  a  half- 
dome,  the  whole,  it  is  said,  being  capable  of  the  most 
brilliant  illumination.  Indeed,  at  every  point  where  it  is 
possible  the  building  offers  an  opportunity  for  an  electri- 
cal night  display.  To  this  end  something  like  20,000  in- 
candescent and  nearly  3000  arc  lights  will  be  employed  on 
or  about  the  edifice.  The  building  covers  more  than  five 
acres  and  a  half,  and  offers  a  floor  surface  of  nearly  nine. 

Mr.  John  P.  Barrett  is  the  executive  of  the  department. 
One  of  his  lieutenants  attended  the  exhibition  at  Frank- 
fort, in  Germany,  in  1891,  the  first  purely  electrical  exhi- 
bition ever  held.  One  of  the  remarkable  exhibits  there 
was  a  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  electrical  power 
can  be  sent  over  great  distances,  the  power  for  the  fair 

194 


being  obtained  from  a  water-fall  100  miles  away.  A  tur- 
bine wheel  operated  the  alternating  dynamos  at  the  gen- 
erating station,  where  power  of  a  low  voltage  was  put 
through  a  converter  and  transformed  into  a  current  of 
high  voltage,  and  then,  on  the  Exposition  Grounds,  was 
reconverted  into  its  original  form.  This  process  will  be 
illustrated  at  Chicago  in  a  modified  manner.  A  Nurem- 
berg firm  showed  some  search-lights  of  amazing  power. 
They  formed  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  modern  world. 
A  nobleman  gave  a  ball  forty-five  miles  away,  it  is  said, 
and  the  light  for  the  dancers  was  supplied  at  Frankfort 
by  this  lamp.  That  lamp  had  a  five-foot  refractor,  but 
at  Chicago  there  will  be  larger  ones,  the  biggest  being 
displayed  on  top  of  the  Electrical  Building,  whence  it 
will  throw  a  huge  white  beam  of  light  across  the  sky  to 
bathe  some  distant  bit  of  Lake  Michigan  in  noonday 
splendor  on  the  darkest  nights.  At  Frankfort  a  theatre 
was  fitted  with  electrical  lights,  arranged  for  the  produc- 
tion of  brilliant  and  realistic  stage  effects,  which  were 
more  ingenious  and  beautiful  than  any  we  have  ever 
seen.  There  will  be  no  theatre  in  the  Chicago  display, 
but  it  is  likely  that  the  processes  in  use  at  Frankfort 
will  be  illustrated  for  us. 

A  very  popular  novelty  in  the  building  will  be  a 
large  and  complete  villa  or  dwelling  fitted  with  all  the 
household  electrical  appliances  of  the  period.  There 
will  be  no  .occasion  for  lighting  a  match  in  it  for  any 
purpose  whatsoever.  At  the  front  door  those  who 
wish  to  enter  will  open  a  box  and  press  3  button,  which 
will  light  the  lamps  in  the  'main  hall,  as  would  be  done 
by  an  occupant  returning  home  late  at  night.  Some  of 
the  lamps  in  the  house  will  be  peculiar.  There  will  be 
electroliers  in  certain  rooms;  rosettes  of  light  embedded 

195 


in  the  ceilings  and  walls  of  other  rooms ;  in  others, 
lamps  set  behind  white  porcelain.  There  will  be  lamps 
in  all  the  closets,  and  these  will  be  lighted  by  the  open- 
ing of  the  closet  doors,  and  put  out  when  the  doors  are 
shut.  The  mere  pressure  of  buttons  in  the  door-frames 
will  open  each  door  in  the  building.  Electric  elevators 
will  obviate  the  necessity  for  using  the  stairways.  In 
all  the  common  rooms  and  sleeping  apartments  there 
will  be  electric  fires  in  open  fireplaces,  simulating  coal 
and  log  fires,  and  each  one  started  by  the  touching  of 
a  button.  In  each  room  there  will  be  electric  fans  for 
use  in  hot  weather.  The  library  will  contain  an  electric 
cigar- lighter,  and  the  sewing-room  will  be  modernized 
by  an  electric  motor  for  running  a  sewing-machine. 
Burglar-alarms  of  the  latest  sort  will  fortify  the  doors 
and  windows.  The  kitchen  will  astonish  old-fashioned 
housewives,  for  all  the  usual  operations  of  the  servants 
will  be  aided  by  electrical  devices.  The  electric  stove 
will  boil,  bake,  or  roast  whatever  is  to  be  prepared  for 
the  table;  the  laundry -machines  will  all  be  electrical, 
even  to  the  smoothing-irons,  from  whose  hollow  interiors 
light  flexible  wires  will  reach  to  the  main  circuits  in  the 
nearest  wall.  Electrical  washing-machines  and  electric 
centrifugal  wringers  will  be  notable  parts  of  the  para- 
phernalia. The  ice  or  the  cool  air  in  the  refrigerator 
will  be  made  by  the  miniature  ammonia  ice-plant,  which 
will  be  arranged  to  cool  the  entire  house  on  hot  days 
and  nights.  The  house  will  be  forty-two  feet  wide  by 
fifty  feet  deep,  and  therefore  each  device  will  be  of  full 
working  size  and  power. 

A  very  beautiful  exhibit  will  be  a  Moorish  minaret 
of  cut  glass  and  Bohemian  colored  glass,  thirty  feet  in 
diameter  and  seventy  feet  in  height.  It  will  appear  like 

196 


a  huge  lamp  at  night.  A  telephone  company  will  em- 
ploy a  fine  orchestra  to  play  in  New  York,  and  will  con- 
duct the  sound  of  the  music  all  the  way  to  the  Electrical 
Building,  in  which  a  great  horn  will  throw  out  the  mel- 
ody for  the  benefit  of  all  who  care  to  visit  the  section. 
One  electrical  company  will  spend  $350,000  upon  its  ex- 
hibit. The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railfoad  Company  will 
show  a  full-sized  model  of  a  scene  attending  the  laying 
of  the  first  telegraph  wire  by  Professor  Morse,  who,  it 
seems,  intended  that  the  telegraph  wires  should  be  en- 
closed in  lead  pipe  and  buried.  An  English  firm  will 
send  complete  models  of  all  the  contrivances  used  in 
laying  submarine  cables.  The  electric  street-car  exhib- 
it in  one  section  of  the  building  will  be  very  fine  and 
thorough,  showing  all  the  methods  of  applying  elec- 
tric power  to  the  propulsion  of  cars.  All  the  currents 
of  power  in  use  in  the  building  will  be  supplied  from 
dynamos  set  up  by  exhibitors  in  the  Machinery  Hall. 

The  French  will  make  a  splendid  display  in  electric 
appliances  that  are  universally  celebrated  as  being  the 
most  artistic  and  often  the  most  delicate  products  of 
the  sort  that  any  country  produces.  The  French  excel 
in  the  manufacture  of  delicate  electrical  instruments  in 
use  in  scientific  pursuits,  and  for  their  ornamental  adap- 
tations of  electrical  inventions.  Belgium  will  be  conspic- 
uous in  the  display,  but  her  contributions  will  be  mainly 
practical,  and  will  embrace  both  heavy  and  light  ma- 
chinery. England  is  very  actively  interested  in  per- 
fecting a  grand  exhibit,  and  the  electricians  of  our  own 
country  will  make  an  enormous  and  marvellous  presen- 
tation of  their  works.  Among  the  German  exhibits 
will  be  the  astonishing  Nuremberg  search-lights  of  which 
I  have  twice  before  had  occasion  to  write. 

IQ7 


A   HISTORY   OF  TRANSPORTATION 

ANOTHER  "  first  appearance  "  at  a  world's  fair  will  be 
the  history  of  Transportation  told  by  a  complete  series 
of  exhibits  at  Chicago  in  1893.  It  will  begin  with  vehi- 
cles as  rude  as  the  dugout,  the  travois,  and  the  chair  on 
which  the  guides  of  the  Andes  transport  travellers  on 
their  backs.  It  will  be  crowned  with  the  marvels  of  the 
modern  railroads — those  mighty  concerns  which  are  es- 
timated to  be  worth  one-tenth  of  the  wealth  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  three  times  more  than  all  the  money  in  the 
world  could  buy. 

The  seventeen  acres  of  exhibition  space  for  this  col- 
lection are  in  a  building  960  feet  long  and  256  feet  deep. 
It  rises  on  the  western  bank  of  the  main  lagoon  nearly 
in  the  centre  of  the  grounds.  In  general  the  architect- 
ural treatment  is  simple,  but  many  of  the  details  and 
accessaries  are  very  rich.  "  The  main  entrance,"  says 
the  official  description,  "  will  consist  of  an  immense  arch, 
decorated  with  carvings,  bass-reliefs,  and  mural  paint- 
ings. It  will  be  treated  entirely  in  gold-leaf,  and  will  be 
known  as  '  the  golden  door.'  Numerous  minor  en- 
trances are  provided,  and  with  them  are  grouped  ter- 
races, seats,  drinking-fountains,  and  statues.  The  interior 
of  the  building  is  treated  much  after  the  manner  of  a 

198 


Roman  basilica,  with  broad  nave  and  aisles."  The  mid- 
dle roof  rises  much  higher  than  the  others,  and  its  walls 
are  partly  open,  so  as  to  form  an  arcaded  clear-story. 
On  this  is  a  cupola  165  feet  above  ground.  Eight  ele- 
vators carry  visitors  from  the  floor  to  the  cupola,  and 
thus  give  them  a  chance  to  overlook  the  entire  aggrega- 
tion of  palaces  in  the  park.  The  architects  of  this  enor- 
mous and  sightly  pile  are  Messrs.  Adler  &  Sullivan,  of 
Chicago,  who  also  designed  the  Auditorium,  the  largest 
and  most  improved  hotel  in  that  city. 

One  of  the  richest  "  finds  "  of  Mr.  Willard  A.  Smith, 
the  life-long  student  of  the  science,  who  is  at  the  head 
of  the  department,  is  an  old  Roman  chariot  now  at 
Florence.  Its  remains  are  complete.  It  has  a  pole, 
neck-yokes  for  the  horses,  and  spoked  wheels.  It  will 
be  reproduced  exactly.  There  is  also,  in  a  museum  in 
the  same  city,  a  miniature  Egyptian  canoe,  found  in 
perfect  condition  in  a  tomb.  It  also  will  be  shown  by 
reproduction.  But  the  exhibits  of  marine  transporta- 
tion may  be  said  to  begin  with  the  rudest  forms  of  vehi- 
cles, such  as  the  simple  bladders  used  as  floats  on  the 
rivers  of  India  by  those  fishermen  who  fish  as  they  are 
carried  along.  Next  will  be  presented  the  log-boats — 
combinations  of  logs,  like  the  jangadas  of  Brazil  and 
the  sampans  of  China.  These  are  too  bulky  to  be 
shown  otherwise  than  by  means  of  models.  Then  follow 
the  sheepskin  rafts  of  the  Euphrates,  formed  of  distended 
skins,  "  with  the  woolly  side  in,"  sewed  together,  and 
made  to  uphold  cross-poles.  Next  we  shall  see  the  dug- 
outs that  are  found  all  over  the  world,  and  that  are 
practically  the  same  everywhere.  These  include  those 
which  are  fitted  with  sails  and  in  use  on  the  west  coast 
of  Africa 

199 


A  higher  development  in  the  next  order  of  succession 
is  seen  in  the  bedarkas  of  Alaska  and  the  kiyaks  of  the 
Eskimos — canoes  made  by  stretching  skins  over  frame- 
works. Succeeding  these  come  the  better  boats,  whose 
covering  of  skin  or  bark  is  sewed,  gummed,  or  laced  upon 
the  vessels'  hulls.  Many  interesting  forms  of  boats  of 
admirable  patterns  will  be  shown,  like  the  gondolas  of 
Italy,  the  caiques  of  Turkey,  the  daghsas  of  Malta,  the 
dahabias  of  the  Nile,  the  latter  being  exhibited,  by  the 
way,  close  to  fine  models  of  the  modern  Nile  passenger 
steamers,  which  are  as  nearly  perfect  as  any  craft  of  their 
class  in  the  world.  Perhaps  the  sailboats  of  the  Adriatic, 
with  their  richly  colored  sails,  will  be  as  picturesque  as 
any  in  the  collection,  but  in  interest  nothing  can  exceed 
the  gorgeous  painting,  already  prepared,  of  the  Bucen- 
toro,  or  state  barge  of  the  Doges  of  Venice,  whose  ex- 
terior was  all  gold,  and  whose  decks  were  of  hard  and 
polished  wood  inlaid  with  marquetry;  the  boat  in  which 
the  rulers  went  out  to  toss  into  the  water  the  marriage- 
ring  with  which  they  wedded  their  city  to  the  sea.  As 
has  been  published  before,  a  company  has  been  formed 
in  Norway  to  reproduce  the  old  Viking's  boat — the  most 
ancient  vessel  in  the  v/orld — that  is  shown  there,  making 
it  of  full  size,  and  perhaps  navigating  it  across  the  ocean 
to  America.  The  great  Hudson's  Bay  Company  will 
contribute  a  notable  display  of  birch-bark  canoes,  York 
boats,  travoises,  dog-sleds,  and  all  the  paraphernalia  of 
travel  and  transportation  in  the  wilderness. 

An  interesting  exhibit  is  promised  from  the  marine 
museum  at  Madrid.  It  will  show  the  sort  of  vessels 
Spain  employed  when  her  naval  power  was  enforced  by 
the  largest  and  best  fleet  in  the  world.  From  the  rath-' 
houses  of  Lubeck,  Hamburg,  and  Bremen  will  come 

200 


MINNESOTA   BUILDING 


models  of  the  once  terrible  vessels  of  the  Hanseatic 
League.  From  England  will  be  sent  the  most  complete 
and  interesting  marine  and  naval  exhibit  which  ever  left 
her  shores.  By  beautiful  models  will  be  shown  the  de- 
velopment of  both  her  merchant  marine  and  her  navy 
up  to  the  Victoria,  her  latest  battle-ship,  the  model  of 
which  cost  $20,000.  Every  large  ship-building  establish- 
ment in  Great  Britain  has  taken  space  in  the  building. 
Trinity  House  will  send  copies  of  the  British  light- 
houses, and  the  English  life-saving  system  will  be  fully 
exploited  in  the  same  way.  The  great  transatlantic 
steamship  companies  of  England,  Germany,  and  France 
are  building  large  fac-similes  of  the  state-rooms  and 
saloons  of  the  finest  "flyers,"  and  they  will  make  a  his- 
torical display  of  the  development  of  the  transatlantic 
service.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  Italy  will 
offer  a  wonderful  and  proud  showing  of  her  naval  re- 
sources. Samples  of  armor-plate,  naval  guns,  quick-firing 
machine  guns,  turrets,  conning  towers,  and  the  complete 
paraphernalia  of  modern  naval  equipment  will  form  an 
accessary  exhibit  contributed  from  many  lands. 

The  subject  or  story  of  land  transportation  will  be  first 
taken  up  with  a  showing  of  ancient  sedan  chairs  and 
more  modern  chairs  of  the  sort  now  used  by  travellers  in 
Persia,  Asia  Minor,  and  Turkey.  We  shall  see  the  pal- 
anquins of  Japan,  China,  India,  and  Africa ;  an  elephant 
carrying  a  howdah,  camel -saddles  for  both  riders  and 
freight,  llamas  with  their  loads,  the  donkey  outfits  of 
South  America  and  Egypt;  the  "rig"  of  the  water-car- 
riers of  Cairo,  of  the  lecheros  or  milk-sellers  of  South 
America,  and  of  the  cargadoes  or  human  pack-horses,  of 
both  sexes,  also  of  that  half  of  our  continent — all  to  be 
shown  by  models  that  include  the  human  and  brute 


forms,  and  trappings  in  fac-simile.  Undergoing  collection 
are  many  magnificent  equestrian  outfits  from  Peru  and 
Mexico,  Algiers,  Turkey,  Russia,  and  Hungary,  but  the 
most  splendid  objects  of  this  sort  will  be  the  horse-trap- 
pings from  the  Casa  Real  at  Madrid,  as  well  as  the  man 
and  horse  armor  of  feudal  times  from  there  and  else- 
where. 

A  Norwegian  cariole,  an  Irish  jaunting-car,  a  Neapoli- 
tan cart,  a  very  picturesque  specimen  of  the  Sicilian 
carts,  and  a  camping  and  travelling  equipment  from  Pal- 
estine are  other  exhibits.  Some  Americans  offer  a  great 
curiosity  from  Lisbon,  where  they  purchased  the  old  car- 
riage which  was  built  for  the  first  Patriarch  of  that  city. 
By  a  special  dispensation,  the  Pope  of  that  time,  350 
years  ago,  permitted  this  vehicle  to  be  exactly  copied 
after  the  papal  carriage,  of  solid  silver  and  heavy  gold 
plate.  It  is  in  perfect  order.  Models  of  ox-carts  used 
in  Jacob's  time  will  be  seen  to  be  precisely  like  those 
now  in  use  in  Mexico,  South  America,  and  some  Asiatic 
lands.  There  will  be  shown  an  ox-cart  entirely  of  wood 
made  by  Pueblo  Indians. 

An  old  English  stage-coach,  such  as  was  in  use  before 
the  advent  of  railroads,  will  serve  as  a  link  between  the 
periods,  and  from  the  very  threshold  of  the  latter  era  is  to 
be  exhibited  the  oldest  railroad-ticket,  an  eight-cornered 
brass  check,  bearing  the  legend,  "  L.  &  S.  Railway,  Bag- 
worth,  No.  29."  It  has  been  recently  recovered  from 
within  the  wainscoting  of  the  oldest  railroad  station  in 
the  world,  at  Leicester,  England,  once  the  terminus  of 
the  all  but  forgotten  Leicester  and  Swannington  Rail- 
way. There  will  be  an  exceedingly  interesting  histori- 
cal collection  of  the  earliest  forms  of  rails  for  steam- 
power  contrivances,  including  one  of  the  rails  on  which 


95 
II 


Nevithick's  engine  ran  in  1804.  A  rail  laid  for  a  tram- 
road  on  the  estate  of  the  Duke  of  Rutland  in  1793,  just 
a  century  ago,  will  be  shown  beside  a  part  of  the  strap- 
rail  on  which  ran  Stevenson's  "  Rocket."  A  curious 
exhibit  will  be  the  first  rail  for  a  flanged  wheel,  the  first 
conceit  of  railroad  builders  having  been  to  put  the  flange 
on  the  rail  in  the  form  of  a  gutter,  instead  of  on  the 
car-wheel.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  the  first 
American  road  that  was  designed  as  a  trunk-line,  will 
prepare  a  historical  exhibit  of  the  earliest  forms  of  its 
track,  cars,  and  locomotives,  of  full  size,  and  including 
an  old  shanty  car,  built  for  passengers,  and  to  be  moved 
by  horse-power.  They  will  reproduce  the  old  locomo- 
tive "  Peter  Cooper,"  which  had  a  famous  race  with  a 
horse-car.  The  old  grasshopper  locomotives,  with  walk- 
ing-beams to  apply  the  power,  and  the  camel-back,  with 
its  dab  on  top  of  the  boiler,  are  also  in  the  collection. 
The  company  is  spending  more  than  $50,000  on  an  ex- 
hibition that  will  show  the  development  of  the  locomo- 
tive— not  at  all  for  purposes  of  advertising,  but  in  the 
sole  interest  of  history  and  information.  It  will  go 
back  to  the  steam  road -carriage,  now  shown  in  Paris, 
and  will  make  clear  the  successful  and  unsuccessful  work 
of  all  the  early  inventors  who  worked  on  the  locomotive 
engine,  the  steps  of  practical  progress  being  shown  full- 
sized. 

The  Pennsylvania  Railroad  will  display  a  section  of 
an  ideal  modern  four-track  railroad,  with  a  station,  sig- 
nal-box, and  switches,  and  with  the  interior  of  the  station 
transformed  into  a  museum,  or  School  of  Railroading, 
illustrating  the  methods  by  which  the  business  is  carried 
on.  This  company  will  offer  a  historical  exhibit  as  well, 
starting  from  the  Conestoga  wagon  and  the  canals  along 

203 


whose  towpaths  the  railroad  was  first  constructed.  To 
make  known  the  best  devices  for  safety  at  stations,  the 
company  will  show  a  model  suburban  station,  with  a 
depot  by  each  track,  connected  by  a  bridge  overhead 
and  a  tunnel  underground. 

The  New  York  Central,  or  Vanderbilt  system,  will  re- 
produce its  old  Schenectady  station  at  one  end  of  its 
space,  and  at  the  other  a  complete  modern  station  build- 
ing. On  the  road-bed  between  the  two  will  be  shown  a 
reproduction  of  the  old  Mohawk  and  Hudson  train  that 
is  so  familiar  in  pictures,  with  the  first  locomotive  and 
the  train  of  funny- looking  cars,  like  stage-coaches  on 
rails.  On  other  tracks  this  company  will  exhibit  the 
most  approved  system  of  signalling  and  a  modern  vesti- 
buled  train  with  a  huge  latter-day  locomotive.  In  the 
entire  aggregation  there  will  be  shown  more  than  sev- 
enty-five American  locomotives.  France  will  send  no 
less  than  eight  locomotives,  and  railway  appliances  and 
exhibits  of  all  sorts  to  a  proportionate  extent.  From 
Germany  the  Government  will  send  some  engines  and 
coaches  from  the  State  railroads,  and,  as  especial  features, 
their  newest  compound  locomotives,  and  both  ambu- 
lance and  postal  cars,  the  latter  being  part  of  the  exhibit 
from  their  Postal  Museum,  which  we  are  also  to  see. 
These  foreign  exhibits  will  form  the  first  really  interna- 
tional and  comparative  exhibition  of  railroad  machinery. 
From  England  will  be  sent  a  London  and  North-western 
Railway  train  complete,  and  shown  on  a  section  of  that 
company's  track,  made  perfect  by  a  presentation  of  their 
signalling  apparatus.  England  will  also  show  examples 
of  great  railway  engineering  works,  including  a  twenty- 
foot  model  of  the  big  Forth  Bridge. 

It  would  seem  that  the  only  serious  interruption  in 

204 


COLORADO   STATE   BUILDING 


the  plans  of  Mr.  Smith  and  his  associate,  Lieutenant 
A.  C.  Baker,  U.S.N.,  is  caused  by  the  apathy  of  the 
New-Yorkers  who  have  to  do  with  her  water  commerce 
and  yachting.  There  is  no  representation  of  the  com- 
mercial navy  of  the  harbor  of  the  metropolis  except  such 
as  has  been  contributed  from  the  New  Jersey  shore. 
Especially  disappointing  is  the  failure  of  the  New  York 
Yacht  Club  to  appreciate  the  opportunity  that  is  yet 
offered  for  the  display  of  its  extremely  valuable  histori- 
cal collection  of  yacht  models.  It  is  said  that  the  rules 
of  this  club  forbid  the  loaning  of  its  models,  but  the 
governors  could  speedily  suspend  such  rules  as  bear 
upon  the  case,  and,  for  that  matter,  the  club  could  well 
afford,  were  its  patriotism  stirred,  to  duplicate  all  its 
models  and  send  the  counterfeits  to  this  otherwise  al- 
most complete  exhibition. 

205 


CHAPTER   XX 
THE    MIDWAY    PLAISANCE 

THE  Columbian  Exposition  is  to  have  what  the  irrev- 
erent architects  call  a  "  Church  Fair"  annex.  They  call 
it  so  because  whereas  the  Exposition  proper  is  designed 
to  show  a  visitor  "  the  earth  for  fifty  cents,"  this  adden- 
dum will  be  filled  with  things  calculated  to  drawa  vis- 
itor's last  nickel,  and  to  leave  his  pocket-book  looking 
as  if  one  of  Chicago's  twenty-story  buildings  had  fallen 
upon  it.  I  refer  to  the  Midway  Plaisance.  The  Plai- 
sance  is  the  name  that  was  long  ago  given  to  a  strip  of 
land  which  connects  Washington  Park  with  Jackson 
Park,  where  the  Exposition  is  to  be  held.  This  Plai- 
sance or  parkway  is  600  feet  wide  and  a  mile  in  length. 
To  explain  its  position  to  a  visitor  to  the  Fair  it  should 
be  said  that  it  starts  behind  the  Woman's  Building,  and 
extends  westward  a  mile  back  from  the  lake  and  into 
the  city. 

Along  its  southerly  side  runs  the  Barry  Sliding  Rail- 
road, a  section  of  which  excited  great  interest  at  Paris 
at  the  last  exposition.  This  is  a  sort  of  water  railroad, 
but  it  acts  as  if  it  was  greased.  The  rails  are  laid  in  a 
trough,  and,  instead  of  running  on  wheels,  slide  on  flat 
disks  which  set  upon  the  rails.  By  hydraulic  pressure, 
water  is  made  to  force  its  way  between  these  disks,  and 

206 


the  tracks  and  the  cars  slip  along  at  the  rate  of  100 
miles  an  hour.  When  the  passengers  are  seated  in  the 
coaches  they  hear  a  "  tsip,"  and,  before  they  can  dis- 
cover what  has  happened,  they  have  run  the  length  of 
the  railroad — in  less  than  a  minute.  In  that  way  they 
traverse  the  Plaisance  in  one  direction,  but  in  order  that 
they  may  see  how  perfectly  under  control  is  the  ap- 
paratus, they  return  easily,  making  three  stops  on  the 
way. 

Through  the  centre  of  this  narrow  parkway  lies  a 
street  100  feet  wide,  and  this  will  be  lined  with  so  re- 
markable a  collection  of  houses,  palaces,  villages,  show- 
places,  and  curiosities  of  one  sort  or  another,  that  though 
a  man  travelled  around  the  world  by  a  hundred  routes 
he  never  could  hope  to  find  its  like  or  its  equal  in  varie- 
ty, color,  gayety,  and  abundance  of  novelties.  This  is 
the  avenue  of  what  the  architects  call  the  ''  Church 
Fair,"  and  of  what  I  think  of  as  the  side-show  at  the 
"  World's  Circus — though  no  diminutive  term  is  applica- 
ble to  it,  and  no  belittling  nickname  is  just,  for  it  is  to 
be  a  place  of  great  and  genuine  wonders. 

It  will  be  a  jumble  of  foreignness — a  bit  of  Fez  and 
Nuremberg,  of  Sahara  and  Dahomey  and  Holland,  Ja- 
pan and  Rome  and  Coney  Island.  It  will  be  gorgeous 
with  color,  pulsating  with  excitement,  riotous  with  the 
strivings  of  a  battalion  of  bands,  and  peculiar  to  the 
last  degree.  It  will  require  a  day  to  glance  at  it ;  a 
week  to  see  it. 

All  the  buildings,  villages,  and  palaces  will  be  the 
seats  of  private  enterprises,  and  they  will  cost  between 
$50,000  and  $250,000  each.  Beginning  on  the  north 
side,  the  first  building  on  the  street  is  a  factory  where  a 
leading  company  will  manufacture  and  cut  glassware, 

207 


performing  the  entire  operation  before  the  public.  Next 
door  to  this  is  a  Dutch  village  copied  from  one  of  those 
in  the  Hollandish  possessions  in  the  South  Pacific  Ocean, 
with  the  natives  leading  their  accustomed  lives  amid 
their  native  surroundings.  A  German  village  of  forty 
houses  is  to  lie  next  beyond.  It  will  cover  a  space  of 
.240X800  feet.  Copies  of  old  Nuremberg  houses,  of 
German  farm-houses,  and  of  other  habitations  peculiar 
to  the  country,  will  surround  a  central  court  wherein 
will  be  found  German  restaurants  and  beer-halls.  There 
will  be  Tyrolese  dancers,  German  bands,  singing  com- 
panies, musicians,  and  German  cooking  and  beer,  all  il- 
lustrative of  fatherland  life  in  town  and  country.  This 
will  provide  a  study  more  or  less  ethnological  in  char- 
acter, and  it  has  interested  ethnologists  in  its  produc- 
tion. Five  hundred  to  a  thousand  persons  will  be 
brought  over  to  equip  it  with  its  population. 

A  street  in  Cairo  will  be  the  next  adjoining  novelty ; 
not  the  famous  Rue  de  Caire  that  delighted  the  Pari- 
sians, but  something  different  and  better.  It  will  show 
a  theatre,  mosque,  bazaar,  private  dwellings,  and  a  full 
representation  of  life  in  the  open  street  by  Egyptians 
in  costume.  Of  course  all  will  sell  wares  and  meals,  and 
give  performances  for  which  there  will  be  a  charge.  One 
of  the  most  exquisite  scenic  effects  within  the  whole 
World's  Fair  will  be  the  Algerian  and  Tunisian  village, 
which  is  next  in  line.  One  who  sees  the  colored  and 
complete  drawings  of  the  buildings  now  on  the  grounds 
realizes  their  great  beauty.  They  are  all  truly  Oriental, 
and  are  white,  with  decorations  of  faience,  in  pale  greens, 
blues,  and  vermilions.  One  is  a  large  Algerian  theatre 
seating  600  persons ;  another  is  a  Tunisian  theatre  hold- 
ing 300.  There  is  also  a  Kabyle  theatre,  such  as  the 

208 


Kabyles  in  the  mountainous  parts  of  Algiers  resort  to. 
A  native  Kabyle  house  is  one  of  the  curiosities ;  another 
is  a  street  leading  to  a  Moorish  cafe",  and  one  of  the 
larger  buildings  is  a  minaret,  with  twenty  shops  under 
a  great  gallery.  A  bazaar  of  as  many  shops  is  another 
feature.  Tents  and  dwellings  are  scattered  about,  and 
a  host  of  the  savage,  swarthy,  but  picturesque  people  of 
Tunis  and  Algiers  will  fill  the  place  with  activity.  Men, 
women,  and  children  will  compose  the  population,  and 
will  dance  and  play  their  music,  cook  and  serve  their 
food,  and  in  every  way  illustrate  their  modes  of  life  at 
home.  Some  native  Arab  fanatics  will  be  among  them, 
eating  scorpions,  carrying  snakes  familiarly  about,  cut- 
ting and  piercing  themselves  with  evil-looking  weapons, 
and  generally  so  behaving  as  to  be  interesting  but  total- 
ly unsuited  to  a  family  tea-party.  The  dans  de  ventre, 
which  was  so  great  a  success  in  Paris,  will  be  repeated 
here. 

The  panorama  of  the  volcano  of  Kilalau  in  the  Sand- 
wich Islands  is  a  next-door  show,  and  next  to  that  is  a 
reproduction  of  a  large  Moroccan  village,  of  which  much 
that  has  been  said  of  the  Tunisian  and  Algerian  display 
would  have  to  be  repeated  were  it  to  be  described.  The 
inevitable  captive  balloon  exhibition  will  be  neighborly 
to  the  Morocco  display,  this  venture  being  by  a  French 
company.  A  mention  of  it  calls  to  mind  the  fact  that 
one  man  asked  the  directors  for  a  concession  for  a  bal- 
loon venture  of  a  novel  kind.  Under  his  balloon  he 
wanted  to  have  a  deep  pond  of  water,  with  a  sort  of 
cup  or  big  thimble  in  the  bottom  of  it.  The  balloon 
was  to  carry  up  a  great  metal  cartridge,  large  enough 
to  admit  a  man  or  woman. .  The  passengers  were  to  get 
in  at  the  top  of  the  cartridge,  be  enclosed  tight,  and 

209 


then  to  be  carried  several  thousand  feet  in  the  air  and 
dropped.  The  cartridge  was  to  fall  into  the  pool,  and, 
after  wobbling  about  in  the  water,  was  to  gradually  come 
to  an  upright  position  and  fit  itself  into  the  cup  in  the 
centre.  The  inventor  thought  that  tens  of  thousands 
of  persons  would  be  wild  to  be  thus  flung  back  to  earth 
from  a  mile  or  so  above  the  clouds,  but  the  directors 
disagreed  with  him. 

A  great  nursery  exhibit  of  trees  will  be  the  last  at- 
traction on  the  north  side  of  this  remarkable  avenue. 
Returning,  on  the  opposite  or  south  side,  the  first  ex- 
hibition will  be  a  representation  of  a  Dahomey  village, 
but  not  sufficient  is  known  of  it  at  this  time  for  me  to 
be  able  to  say  more  than  that  it  will  be  like  most  of  the 
other  foreign  settlements — a  reproduction  of  antipodean 
life.  An  Austrian  village  next  along  the  line  will  give 
a  wide  and  complete  view  of  life  in  town  and  country 
in  Austria,  with  houses  and  peasants  as  they  are  seen 
there.  A  copy  of  a  magnificent  house  as  it  stood  in 
ancient  Rome  will  be  on  the  next  plot  of  ground.  Far- 
ther on  will  be  found  a  very  peculiar  toy,  "  the  ice  rail- 
road." By  means  of  a  refrigerating  process  the  moisture 
on  a  system  of  pipes  will  be  frozen  sufficiently  deep  for 
sleds  to  be  run  over  it  during  the  entire  summer. 

Beside  the  railroad  is  another  toy,  and  one  so  remark- 
able that  it  is  sometimes  referred  to  as  filling  the  place 
of  especial  notoriety  that  was  held  in  Paris  by  the  Eiffel 
Tower.  This  curiosity  at  Chicago  is  called  "  the  Ferris 
Wheel."  It  is  a  wheel  250  feet  in  diameter,  or  as  wide 
as  twenty  full -sized  city  dwellings.  Its  construction 
combines  great  strength  with  airy  gracefulness  and  light- 
ness by  the  adaptation  of  the  principle  upon  which  a 
bicycle  wheel  is  built.  The  great  circle,  looking  almost 

210 


like  a  cobweb  from  a  distance,  will  be  revolved  on  an 
axle  that  will  rest  on  two  towers,  each  150  feet  high. 
On  the  periphery  of  the  wheel,  in  the  place  where  pad- 
dles would  go  on  a  paddle-wheel,  will  be  hung  twenty- 
six  passenger-cars,  each  capable  of  seating  sixty  persons. 
These  cars  will  be  so  adjusted  as  to  keep  their  positions 
evenly  and  steadily  while  the  great  wheel  revolves,  and 
passengers  will  find  themselves  lifted  far  above  the  high- 
est buildings,  and  commanding  a  view  of  the  entire  Ex- 
position, the  city,  and  a  great  segment  of  Lake  Michi- 
gan's surface  of  emerald  and  sapphire.  The  gearing 
by  which  the  motive  force  is  applied  to  the  wheel  will 
be  underneath,  and  will  be  exerted  by  means  of  cogs, 
giving  the  operator  full  control  and  the  passengers  per- 
fect safety. 

Next  beyond  this  giant  wheel  will  be  an  immense 
Moorish  palace  after  the  style  of  the  Alhambra.  Its 
interior  will  be  given  up  to  an  exhibition  of  Moorish 
and  Spanish  curios.  Its  managers  propose  to  exhibit 
$1,000,000  in  gold  in  one  pile  in  one  of  the  apartments. 
This  treasure  will  be  so  disposed  that  at  the  slightest 
approach  of  danger,  or  at  any  pretended  alarm,  the  mass 
of  wealth  will  sink  into  the  ground  and  disappear.  Its 
disappearance  will  be  within  a  burglar-proof  vault,  built 
underneath  it  for  the  purpose.  This  receptacle  will  in- 
stantly lock  itself  up  when  the  treasure  descends  into  it, 
and  any  robber  who  may  have  thought  himself  about  to 
capture  it,  will  feel  like  the  boy  who,  when  he  went  to 
pick  up  something  on  the  sidewalk,  found  that  it  had  a 
string  to  it. 

A  panorama  of  the  Bernese  Alps  is  spoken  of  as  a 
most  realistic  painting,  and  next  to  it  is  a  natatorium  of 
great  size,  which,  besides  containing  a  large  swimming 

211 


pool,  will  have  private  baths,  plenty  of  dressing-rooms, 
and  all  sorts  of  appliances  for  water  gymnastics  and  ath- 
letic sports.  A  typical  Vienna  bakery  is  to  be  run  in 
connection  with  the  natatorium.  Beyond  this  the  won- 
derful zoological  collection  of  the  famous  Hagenbeck,  of 
Germany,  is  to  be  on  exhibition.  For  very  many  years 
Herr  Hagenbeck  has  been  world  famous  as  the  largest 
collector  of  animals  in  Christendom.  A  very  complete 
exhibition  of  Irish  industries  and  products  from  Donegal 
occupies  the  next  space.  Donegal  is  the  headquarters 
of  the  Irish  lace- making  industry,  and  the  display  of 
these  beautiful  laces  will  be  very  notable.  Thus  we 
are  brought  back  to  the  head  of  the  Plaisance,  and  find 
ourselves  again  behind  the  Woman's  Building.  We  can- 
not reach  that  building  without  passing  the  Circular 
Railroad  Tower,  the  last — or  the  first,  if  you  please — of 
the  wonders  of  the  Plaisance.  The  tower  will  be  400 
feet  in  height  and  100  feet  in  diameter,  and  will  look  not 
unlike  the  Leaning  Tower  of  Pisa.  Around  it  will  run 
a  spiral  railroad  with  two  tracks.  On  one  of  these  tracks 
the  cars  will  be  hauled  to  the  top  by  means  of  a  cable 
moved  by  electrical  power.  Then  they  will  descend  by 
gravity,  and  the  passengers  will  enjoy  a  novel,  if  not  a 
dizzy,  journey. 


CHAPTER    XXI 
ORNAMENTS    AND   ODDITIES 

THE  "pop -corn  man"  at  the  Columbian  Exposition 
counts  upon  a  profit  of  at  least  $100,000  from  the  sale 
of  his  goods  there,  and  he  is  no  visionary.  He  obtained 
the  same  concession  at  the  Philadelphia  Exposition  in 
1876  and  cleared  $70,000.  He  will  dot  the  Exposi- 
tion Grounds  with  pretty  little  stands  that  will  be  long 
the  subject  of  tender  memory  with  those  who  like  their 
corn  when  it  is  hot.  But  there  will  be  hundreds  of 
other  kiosks,  boxes,  pavilions,  and  booths  at  the  Colos- 
sal Fair,  and  if  we  include  a  mention  of  a  few  of  the  still 
larger  and  more  ambitious  houses  for  the  sale  and  ex- 
hibition of  the  things  the  crowds  will  want,  we  start 
upon  a  chapter  of  uncommon  interest. 

Clams  and  baked  beans  will  at  last  receive  their  glori- 
ous deserts.  It  has  been  reserved  for  the  Columbian 
Exposition  to  pay  the  debt  of  an  admiring  world  to 
these  marvellous  sources  of  Massachusetts'  greatness. 
The  Clam-bake  Building,  180  feet  long  by  60  feet  wide, 
will  be  one  of  the  prettiest  edifices  on  the  Fair  Grounds. 
Mr.  Sandier  is  the  architect,  and,  catching  the  true  spir- 
it of  the  clam  and  the  Boston  bean,  has  designed  a 
building  whose  beauty  is  in  its  simple  lines  and  modest 
ornamentation.  To  be  sure,  the  panels  of  its  entabla- 

213 


ture  are  decked  with  carved  fish -nets  and  sea -shells, 
and  its  projecting  balconies  will  appear  gay  with  color 
against  the  white  walls,  but  in  the  main  the  theme  of 
the  building  is  approached  with  proper  reverence.  Here 
the  clam-baking  will  be  done  in  pure  Yankee  style.  A 
great  court,  running  through  the  building  to  the  roof, 
will  rise  above  an  enormous  and  incessant  clam-bake  in 
the  basement,  down  upon  which  all  visitors  to  the  build- 
ing may  gaze.  I  do  not  know  why  the  appetizing 
gases  and  perfumed  odors  of  the  succulent  composition  of 
clams,  sweet  corn,  and  other  "  goodies  "  should  be  drawn 
or  sucked  away  so  as  not  to  rise  to  the  noses  between 
each  pair  of  devouring  eyes,  but  this  is  to  be  done.  A 
forced  draught  will  carry  up  the  chimneys  that  delicious 
effluvia  which  is  to  a  true  Yankee  what  the  odor  of  in- 
cense is  to  other  devotees.  There  will  be  a  restaurant 
on  the  second  floor  over  the  bake,  and  a  roof-garden 
will  render  the  top  of  the  house  useful.  This  is  the 
work  of  Boston  capitalists — I  had  almost  said  philan- 
thropists. 

The  Leather  Building  is  on  the  lake  shore  near  the 
Forestry  Building.  It  is  built  at  the  expense  of  a  com- 
bination of  men  in  the  leather  industries.  This  will 
be  rather  one  of  the  larger  than  of  the  subordinate 
houses,  for  it  will  have  a  length  of  600  feet  and  a  width 
of  1 50  feet.  It  will  cost  $100,000.  In  it  the  leather  men 
will  combine  in  exhibiting  the  machinery  and  products 
of  manufacture  in  this  country.  Of  shoes,  saddles,  and 
trappings,  and  of  many  other  sorts  of  leather-work,  both 
the  ancient  and  curious  and  the  modern  and  perfected 
articles,  they  will  make  one  of  the  notable  exhibits  at 
the  Fair. 

The  Convent  of  La  Rabida,  to  which  Columbus  retired 

214 


_ 

2*  50 
o 

H 


o  S 
3  > 
S  z 


o  a 

I? 


at  Palos,  in  Spain,  after  his  disappointment,  and  before 
the  King  and  Queen  reconsidered  his  project,  will  be  re- 
stored in  staff  as  nearly  as  human  ingenuity  can  make 
it.  In  it  will  be  shown  all  the  Columbiana  that  can  be 
gathered  ;  all  relics  of  Columbus — books,  pictures,  por- 
traits, and  everything  that  illustrates  his  life  and  ad- 
ventures. This  will  be  the  work  of  the  Latin-American 
Department,  and  a  man-of-war  will  be  sent  abroad  to 
collect  and  to  guarantee  the  safe  conduct  of  the  pre- 
cious relics  to  our  shores.  Possibly  the  last  lineal  de- 
scendant of  Columbus,  the  Duke  of  Veragua,  now  living 
in  Spain,  will  accept  an  invitation  to  come  and  live  in 
the  convent  during  the  Exposition. 

The  Choral  Building  is  put  up  by  the  Exposition 
managers.  It  is  so  large  that  it  will  accommodate  an 
audience  of  5700,  a  chorus  of  2000  persons,  and  an  or- 
chestra of  160  persons — all  seated  as  if  around  the  sides 
of  a  sloping  bowl,  for  the  whole  interior  is  an  open  cir- 
cular amphitheatre  with  rings  of  seats  one  above  the 
other  and  with  the  conductor  at  the  bottom,  as  if  he 
stood  in  the  heart  of  an  unfolding  flower.  Externally 
the  building  is  a  modest  square  pile,  Ionic  in  character, 
and  very  plain  and  chaste.  Those  who  see  it  will  be 
most  impressed  by  its  noble  porch  recessed  behind 
heavy  Ionic  columns.  Francis  M.  Whitehouse,  of  Chi- 
cago, is  the  architect,  and  the  dimensions  of  the  build- 
ing are  250  by  260  feet.  This  hall  the  Exposition  man- 
agers will  put  at  the  disposal  of  the  various  choruses 
that  are  to  be  features  of  the  Fair,  sometimes  in  com- 
petition one  with  another.  Other  musical  entertain- 
ments, such  as  oratorios  and  the  Welsh  eisteddfod,  will 
be  presented  here. 

A  concession  has  been  granted  to  one  of  the  very 

215 


swell  restaurateurs  of  Paris,  who  will  be  backed  by  New 
York  capital,  that  is  to  be  expended  in  putting  up  a 
very  notable  restaurant  building.  It  will  be  pretty  in 
its  exterior  effects,  but  its  interior  marvels  will  pale  all 
its  other  attractions,  for  it  is  proposed  to  fit  it  palatially, 
so  that  there  shall  be  no  other  dining-place  so  rich  and 
attractive  in  all  America.  The  most  artistic  furniture 
and  decorations  will  embellish  it,  and  the  rarest  china 
and  glassware,  contributed  by  the  principal  foreign  man- 
ufacturers of  such  wares,  will  equip  its  tables  when  they 
are  set.  The  building  will  contain  fifteen  private  dining- 
rooms.  The  famous  "  Joseph,"  long  of  the  Cafe"  Amer- 
icain  and  now  of  the  Cafe  de  Paris  in  that  city,  will  be 
the  chef.  He  is  the  man  whom  one  of  the  Vanderbilts 
salaried  and  brought  to'  America  a  few  years  ago.  In 
all  probability  the  French  possess  a  word  to  explain 
what  Joseph  is,  for  he  is  not  a  cook  or  a  chef.  He  is 
an  artist  of  the  table,  of  the  dining-room,  rather  than 
of  the  kitchen.  It  is  said  of  him  that  he  can  so  embel- 
lish and  serve  the  most  ordinary  green  apple  that  it  be- 
comes a  thing  which  men  will  bid  against  one  another 
to  acquire.  His  art  is  the  science  of  tempting  men  to 
dine,  of  arousing  an  appetite,  of  making  every  edible 
and  dish  take  on  a  new  attractiveness  under  his  way  of 
serving  or  displaying  it. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  number  of  restaurants 
that  will  offer  meals  to  those  who  visit  the  Fair.  Every 
nationality  will  maintain  its  own  restaurants  and  modes 
of  preparing  food.  Wherever  the  nations  seek  to  re- 
produce their  peasant  life  or  novelties,  a  dining-place 
will  be  one  feature  of  such  exhibition.  All  the  great 
buildings  of  the  Exposition  proper  have  been  planned 
with  profuse  arrangements  for  restaurants,  varying  in 

216 


scope  and  excellence.  Near  the  stock  exhibit,  and 
where  men  will  go  to  look  at  masses  of  machinery,  or  to 
wrap  themselves  up  in  the  study  of  a  serious  subject, 
the  restaurants  will  be  mere  lunch-counters ;  whereas  in 
the  heart  and  the  gayety  of  the  crowds  there  will  be 
bountiful  and  elaborate  provision  for  eating.  The  great 
structure  for  the  exhibition  of  manufactures  and  liber- 
al arts,  the  largest  of  the  enormous  palaces,  will  contain 
more  restaurants  than  are  to  be  found  in  some  cities. 
The  twenty-five-foot  loggia  along  the  east  side  of  this 
building  is  one-third  of  a  mile  in  length,  and  it  will  be 
lined  with  restaurants,  all  facing  Lake  Michigan.  The 
restaurateurs  will  have  the  right  to  set  tables  out  on  the 
promenade,  as  is  done  on  the  boulevards  of  Paris.  It  is 
hoped  here  to  show  the  working  and  service  of  all  na- 
tions in  the  widest  and  most  attractive  variety,  so  that 
merely  to  walk  past  them  and  to  see  the  Japanese  and 
Javanese,  the  French,  the  Swiss,  and  all  the  others,  with 
their  differing  eating-houses,  will  be  a  joy  and  wonder 
in  itself. 

Ceylon  will  have  a  typical  and  beautiful  pavilion — 
one  of  those  low-roofed  palaces  with  richly-carved  posts, 
red  tiles,  and  all  the  ornate  characteristics  of  Indian  ar- 
chitecture with  which  those  of  us  who  love  pictures  are 
familiar.  Turkey  is  to  have  a  building  fifty  feet  square, 
which  will  be  an  exact  copy  of  one  now  in  Constantino- 
ple. It  will  be  all  open  underneath,  and  supported  on 
gaudy  columns,  gayly  roofed  ;  but  the  wonder  of  it  will 
be  that  it  will  be  all  inlaid  with  mother-of-pearl.  This 
building  is  designed  as  a  sort  of  rendezvous.  It  has 
already  been  built  in  Turkey,  and  is  in  readiness  to  ship 
to  Chicago. 

The  chewing-gum  man  who  has  bought  the  right  to 

217 


sell  that  commodity — which,  as  we  read  on  the  Chicago 
fences,  all  gentlemen  chew  after  drinking,  and  all  ladies 
chew  to  "lubricate  their  throats" — is  not  going  to  be 
distanced  by  the  pop-corn  man.  He  will  have  as  many 
stands  as  the  other,  and  all  his  little  marts  will  be  as 
pretty  as  so  many  statues  in  a  park.  The  officials  insist 
that  they  shall  be  pretty,  or  they  shall  not  be  at  all. 
Then,  again,  there  are  to  be  scores  and  scores  of  cent- 
a-gUss  pure  water  kiosks,  little  pavilions  for  the  sale  of 
an  absolutely  pure  water  brought  from  springs  100 
miles  away.  The  entire  great  area  of  the  Fair  Grounds 
has  been  piped  for  conducting  this  supply  to  the  dif- 
ferent stands.  The  toilet  and  retiring  rooms  for  ladies 
and  gentlemen  will  not  be  scattered  about  the  avenues 
in  the  manner  that  formed  so  bad  a  feature  of  the  Paris 
Exposition.  They  will  be  arranged  in  groups  in  all  the 
large  buildings,  at  the  entrances,  and  at  central  points. 
They  will  be  under  careful  supervision,  and  alongside 
those  which  are  free  will  be  those  in  which  for  a  small 
fee  of,  say,  five  cents,  the  full  advantages  of  a  neat  and 
complete  wash-room  with  willing  attendants  can  be  en- 
joyed away  from  the  crowds  and  at  ease.  The  plumb- 
ing will  be  of  the  daintiest  and  most  perfect  character. 
The  work  of  preparing  it  has  been  put  in  the  hands  of 
a  syndicate  of  leading  plumbers. 

Set  about  the  great  park-like  grounds  in  all  suitable 
places  will  be  picturesque  flower -stands  presided  over 
by  pretty  young  women,  the  buildings  themselves  being 
subordinated  in  beauty  to  the  masses  of  blossoms  and 
bouquets  which  will  be  heaped  within  them,  as  one  sees 
such  stands  on  the  Parisian  boulevards. 

In  half  a  dozen  places  there  will  be  ornate  music  pa- 
vilions, very  gay  in  colors,  and  of  the  French  renaissance 

218 


COL.  G.  R.  DAVIS 


type  of  construction  design.  Mr.  Theodore  Thomas's 
agents  have  been  abroad  to  secure  all  the  famous  mili- 
tary bands  of  Europe.  These  will  be  heard  at  one  time 
or  another,  alternating  their  performances  in  the  vari- 
ous pavilions.  There  will  be  an  abundance  of  this  very 
best  of  out-of-door  music  by  the  noted  orchestras  of  all 
the  gay  places  of  Europe,  such  as  Homburg,  Monte  Carlo, 
Vienna,  Berlin,  and  by  such  bands  as  that  of  the  Cold- 
stream  Guards,  of  Strauss,  of  Suza  of  Washington,  and 
by  whichever  are  the  foremost  bands  of  St.  Petersburg 
and  Paris. 

At  the  principal  points  of  view,  particularly  around 
the  crystal  lagoon,  wherein  the  Wooded  Island  lifts  its 
restful  height,  will  be  built  blooming  bowers  of  leafage. 
The  vines  of  which  these  shady  nooks  will  be  formed 
will  train  over  trellises  resting  upon  ornamental  columns 
or  upon  hermes,  those  pedestals  ending  in  busts  of  sa- 
tyrs such  as  are  seen  at  Capri.  These  retreats,  called 
pergulas  by  the  learned,  will  be  free,  and  most  delightful 
to  all  who  are  tired  or  who  wish  to  sit  and  drink  in  the 
memorable  scene  among  the  great  palaces,  under  the 
flutter  of  a  myriad  of  gay  banners,  and  amid  the  bustle 
of  armies  of  trooping  sight-seers. 

In  front  of  the  great  building  for  manufactures,  be- 
tween it  and  the  trim  shelving  shore  of  Lake  Michigan, 
will  be  a  row  of  ten  rather  large  pavilions  of  very  rich 
design.  Two  of  these  elaborate  gems  of  art  have  been 
taken  by  rival  chocolate  houses.  One  is  being  designed 
by  Carrere  &  Hastings,  of  New  York.  It  is  in  the  Louis 
XV.  style,  very  luxuriant  in  its  carving,  and  gayly  col- 
ored in  the  tones  of  Dresden  china.  It  will  be  a  perfect 
gem.  The  other  will  doubtless  vie  with  it.  In  these 
two  tiny  palaces  the  public  will  be  asked  to  drink  choc- 

219 


olate  served  by  comely  maidens  in  bewitching  costumes, 
the  beverage  being  offered  in  only  the  daintiest  china. 
The  Japanese  have  secured  another  of  these  ornate  pa- 
vilions for  a  native  tea-house,  and  undoubtedly  the 
others  will  be  taken  by  different  nationalities  for  similar 
purposes. 

220 


CHAPTER   XXII 
A  WONDERFUL  MINERAL  EXHIBIT 

IN  a  very  prettily  located  position  stands  the  great 
building  devoted  to  mining  and  metallurgy.  It  forms 
one  of  the  group  which  has  for  its  centre-piece  the  com- 
manding and  graceful  Administration  Building.  It  faces 
at  the  south  the  Grand  Central  Court ;  at  the  north,  the 
waters  of  the  Lagoon.  The  great  throng  of  visitors 
which  will  move  in  from  the  terminal  station,  and  stream 
out  around  the  western  line  of  exhibit  buildings,  will 
course  through  the  structure  which  is  to  house  the  offer- 
ings to  the  Genius  of  Mining. 

The  substantial  and  ornate  exterior  is  suggestive  both 
of  the  fundamental  character  of  this  industry  and  of  the 
thousand  and  one  brilliant,  handsome,  and  unique  forms 
of  mineral  wealth  to  be  displayed  in  the  interior.  The 
symbolical  figures  of  miners  with  picks  and  pans  in  hand, 
adorning  the  walls  of  the  lofty  arched  portal,  teach  their 
lesson  that  the  opulence  of  precious  metal  and  costly 
gem  to  be  lavishly  displayed  within  is,  as  in  all  other 
industries,  only  achieved  in  terms  of  toil. 

The  scene  which  will  be  presented  by  the  interior  will 
certainly  be  an  attractive  and  striking  one.  Let  us  an- 
ticipate what  it  will  disclose.  We  find  ourselves  within  a 
capacious  hall,  700  feet  long,  350  feet  broad,  and  almost 


IOO  feet  high.  The  glass -covered  roof  seems  to  have 
a  light  and  airy  support,  its  cantilever  truss  branching 
from  and  sustained  by  only  two  widely-separated  lines  of 
graceful  columns.  We  see  a  strikingly  beautiful  display 
confronting  us — glittering  minerals,  many-colored  assort- 
ments of  ore,  towering  stacks  of  shining  metals,  trophies, 
bunting,  half- discerned  descriptive  shields,  everything 
in  such  profusion  as  to  be  at  first  bewildering. 

To  make  a  closer  survey,  we  walk  down  the  broad 
central  avenue  which  forms  a  promenade  the  length  of 
the  building.  Bullion  Boulevard  it  might  aptly  be  term- 
ed, from  the  mass  of  riches  heaped  upon  the  fronting 
spaces.  On  the  western  side  of  this  avenue  are  arranged 
the  exhibits  of  the  leading  mineral-producing  foreign 
countries,  beginning  with  the  Central  and  South  Ameri- 
can States.  The  lands  of  the  Aztec  and  Inca,  in  respect 
to  the  variety  of  resources  and  prodigious  output  of 
metal,  still  vie  with  their  northern  neighbor.  It  is  a 
case  of  age  and  natural  fertility  as  against  youth  and 
future  productiveness.  The  mines,  worked  from  prehis- 
toric times,  with  whose  gold  Cortez  loaded  his  return- 
ing galleons,  and  which  were  still  active  when  the  great 
discoverer  Alexander  von  Humboldt  described  them, 
still  revel  in  the  record  of  their  ancient  greatness  and 
prove  their  present  stores  inexhaustible.  Lining  the 
opposite  side  of  the  avenue  have  been  located  the  treas- 
ure States  of  our  own  country.  These  States,  through 
their  organized  boards  and  regularly  appointed  officials, 
have  for  many  months  been  assiduously  employed  in 
gathering  and  selecting  exhibits  possessing  an  inherent 
interest  and  attractiveness,  and  characteristic  of  their 
respective  States.  As  each  State  and  Territory  owns,  for 
Exposition  purposes,  the  space  it  occupies,  the  result  has 


THOMAS   W.  PALMER,  PRESIDENT 
(Michigan) 


been  a  great  rivalry  as  to  which  shall  excel  in  the  mat- 
ter of  comparative  exhibits,  arrangement,  and  decora- 
tions. The  variety  of  mineral  products,  allowing  a  wide 
difference  of  treatment,  together  with  great  diversity  in 
the  tastes  of  the  designers,  has  therefore  transformed 
the  State  sections  into  a  series  of  ever-changing  scenes, 
mirroring  the  typical  mineral  resources  and  industries  of 
each  one.  Monotony  is  lost  as  in  the  glittering  transfor- 
mations of  the  kaleidoscope.  Here  granite-ribbed  New 
England,  demonstrating  the  solidity  of  her  foundation, 
exposes  in  cube  and  slab  the  beauty  and  excellence  of 
her  justly  celebrated  quarries.  From  the  vast  coal 
basins  of  the  carboniferous  forests  the  great  States  of 
the  Appalachian  region  and  Ohio  valley  appropriate  a 
plumage,  all  their  own,  of  shiny  blackness,  and  fashion 
this  murky  material  into  singular  and  felicitous  embel- 
lishments. 

In  the  centre  of  one  space  are  trophies  in  glistening, 
moulded  metals;  here,  curious  arches  of  iron  and  steel, 
resting  upon  massive  blooms  and  billets;  there,  a  statue 
in  bronze,  brass,  or  copper,  supported  by  pedestals  of 
curiously  wrought  metals.  In  the  centre  of  another  sec- 
tion pillars  and  pyramids  of  salt  of  rare  crystalline  white- 
ness and  beauty,  almost  blinding  in  their  brilliancy,  are 
reinforced  with  an  assortment  of  the  different  evaporated 
and  mined  saline  products;  over  there,  a  dioramic  view 
of  a  western  desert,  with  a  train  and  teams  made  of 
borax  realistically  springing  from  the  painted  scene. 
The  South  substantiates  the  "boom"  she  has  received 
during  the  last  decade  by  exhibiting  collections  of  her 
many  commercial  minerals,  such  as  mineral  fertilizers 
and  pigments,  clays,  and  her  numerous  precious  and  base 
metalliferous  ores.  The  gold  and  precious  stones  of 

223 


North  Carolina,  the  phosphates  of  Florida,  and  the  iron 
ores  of  Alabama  are  assembled  in  this  world-wide  ex- 
hibit. But  in  the  realm  of  the  metals  it  is  the  great  and 
unbounded  West  that  presents  the  most  wonderful  dis- 
play of  limitless  wealth.  California,  Colorado,  Montana, 
Idaho,  are  names  synonymous  with  golden  opulence. 
The  nuggets  of  placer  gold,  the  heaps  of  quartzose  ores, 
full  of  the  yellow  metal,  and  bullion,  stacked  on  every 
side,  attest  the  fact  that  these  are  the  sovereign  mining 
States.  A  large  semicircular  court  in  the  centre  of  the 
building  is  adorned  with  a  trophy  tower,  formed  by  a 
cluster  of  typical  machines  employed  in  the  mining  in- 
dustry, and  emerging  at  the  base  from  a  massive  and 
artistic  mineral  foundation,  appropriately  graced  with 
shields  and  ensigns.  This  is  intended  to  be  the  princi- 
pal rendezvous  of  the  building.  From  it  radiate  ave- 
nues, aisles,  and  transepts,  which  render  all  the  exhibits 
easy  of  access.  Foreign  countries,  like  Great  Britain 
and  Germany,  on  one  side  confront  the  greatest  of  our 
mineral  States  on  this  open  central  arena. 

In  one  direction  we  discern  the  outlines  of  the  heavier 
machinery  used  in  mining,  both  underground  and  on  the 
surface,  for  the  extraction  of  the  ores  and  their  final  re- 
duction. The  exploitation  of  this  machinery  is  complete 
in  every  detail.  One  can  trace  the  ore  through  every 
stage  of  these  processes.  Drills  and  cutting  machines 
take  out  the  ore ;  automatic  hoisting  and  conveying  ap- 
pliances transport  it  to  the  crusher  and  stamp-mill;  a 
smelting  plant  reduces  the  assorted  ores,  and  turns  out 
the  metal  in  ingot  form.  Most  interesting  of  all  the 
exhibits  in  this  division,  for  the  average  visitor  as  well 
as  for  the  mining  engineer,  are  the  different  applications 
to  which  electricity  has  been  put  in  the  new  and  fruitful 

224 


field  of  mining.  Its  ease  of  transmission  has  availed  to 
make  of  it  an  exceedingly  efficient  motor  agent,  and  the 
most  improved  mines  at  the  present  day  employ  elec- 
trically-driven ro.ck  and  core  drills,  and  underground 
trains,  while  some  of  the  hugest  mining  pumps  and 
hoists  are  of  the  electric  variety.  Electricity  fires  the 
blast,  gives  the  signals,  and,  in  some  cases,  lights  the 
mines.  As  a  principle  in  mining  machinery  it  is  becom- 
ing indispensable.  The  display,  offering  as  it  does  an 
unparalleled  opportunity  for  comparison  and  study,  can- 
not fail  to  give  a  tremendous  impetus  to  its  further  de- 
velopment in  this  direction. 

A  series  of  most  entertaining  and  instructive  exhibits 
are  the  collections  of  archaeological  mining  tools  and 
apparatus  employed  in  the  earliest  days  of  mining  his- 
tory. These  are  arranged  in  a  progressive  order,  and 
thus  present  the  successive  advances  made  in  the  im- 
provement of  each  particular  kind  of  machine.  For  ex- 
ample, we  have  shown  to  us,  in  this  comparative  man- 
ner, the  methods  employed  by  the  ancients,  or  primitive 
peoples,  for  sinking  shafts,  driving  and  timbering  tun- 
nels, and  for  hoisting  and  transporting  the  ores.  The 
pick,  hammer,  and  chisel  are  contrasted  with  compressed 
and  electric  rock  drills,  and  with  powerful  machines 
which  cut  out  the  mined  material  in  huge  blocks.  The 
straight-laddered  pole,  up  which  climbs  the  South  Amer- 
ican native  miner  with  ponderous  burden  of  ore  baskets, 
is  placed  beside  the  old-fashioned  windlass  and  basket. 
This  in  turn  is  succeeded  by  the  engine  and  bucket,  or 
cage,  the  improved  engine  and  hoisting-drum,  and, 
finally,  liquid -lifts  and  electric  hoists.  A  picturesque 
group,  consisting  of  a  burro  laden  with  panniers  of  ore, 
urged  on  by  his  native  driver,  represents  the  first  stage 

225 


in  the  surface  transportation  of  ores,  the  series  ending 
with  belt  conveyers,  automatic  tramways,  and  hydraulic 
transmission  of  coal  and  ores  through  a  liquid  medium. 
Beginning  with  the  grinding  mortars  and  stone  mills, 
relics  of  the  earliest  ages,  we  are  shown  a  variety  of  an- 
tique and  curious  crushing  appliances,  such  as  the  his- 
torical arastra  of  Mexico  (several  oblong  stones  revolved 
in  a  circular  vat  by  mule -power),  and  we  finally  halt  be- 
fore the  modern  stamp  and  gold  mill  with  all  the  acces- 
saries for  separating  and  sorting  the  ores. 

In  the  metallurgical  section  an  exhibit  of  great  his- 
toric interest  is  the  original  Bessemer  converter,  the 
first  device  ever  used  for  the  manufacture  of  steel  by 
the  pneumatic  method.  This  was  invented  by  a  Ken- 
tuckian  (Kelley),  and  patented  two  years  prior  to  Sir 
Henry  Bessemer's  claim.  Of  course,  the  operation  of 
that  wonder  of  the  age,  the  steel-rolling  mill,  is  exhib- 
ited in  miniature  models  of  the  machinery,  diagrams, 
and  pictures,  and  specimens  of  the  product  at  different 
stages  of  manufacture.  The  electrical  reduction  of  the 
metals — aluminium,  copper,  and  tin — forms  a  very  inter- 
esting and  attractive  exhibit,  the  actual  process  proceed- 
ing under  the  eyes  of  the  visitor. 

The  Cape  Colony  exhibit  comprises  an  exact  repro- 
duction of  the  machinery  and  methods  employed  for 
mining  and  washing  gems  in  the  famous  South  African 
diamond  fields.  We  can  easily  imagine  ourselves  at  the 
Kimberley  mines,  as  the  machinery  before  us  stamps, 
chops  up,  and  washes  the  diamondiferous  blue  clay,  and 
the  native  Kaffirs  at  the  sorting-tables  pick  out  and  ar- 
range the  precious  pebbles  according  to  size  and  quality. 
The  lapidary  is  at  hand  with  his  chisel  and  wheel ;  takes 
the  stone,  chips  off  a  bit  here  and  there,  polishes  the 

226 


JOHN   T.  DICKINSON,  SECRETARY 
(Texas) 


facets,  and  dazzles  the  eye  with  the  brilliant  and  flash- 
ing rays  of  a  perfect  gem. 

At  the  side  or  end  of  the  building  we  ascend  a  broad 
flight  of  stairs  to  the  spacious  gallery.  From  this  point 
of  vantage  the  spectacle  afforded  by  the  varied  display 
below  is  indeed  inspiring.  The  avenues  and  transepts, 
as  revealed  in  a  bird's-eye  view,  mark  out  four  large  open 
rectangular  exhibit  sections,  and  two  narrower  areas  con- 
tiguous to  the  walls  of  the  building  on  either  side.  Every 
bit  of  these  spaces. seems  alive  with  the  gleam  and  glitter 
of  mineral  and  metal,  and  the  tremulous  motion  of  ma- 
chines. Turning  from  the  rail,  wre  find  ourselves  among 
handsome  glass  cabinets  containing  collections  of  crys- 
tals— flawless  and  unique.  Down  another  alcove  is  a 
complete  set  of  gold  and  silver  bearing  minerals,  simple 
to  complex,  flecked  with  grains  of  their  white  or  yellow 
ingredient.  The  blues  and  greens  of  copper,  the  yellows 
of  sulphur,  and  the  many- shaded  iridescence  of  other 
crystalline  minerals,  all  intermingle  to  make  a  pleasing 
effect  in  color.  Model  after  model  of  famous  mines  and 
mining  establishments  is  arranged  on  tables,  and  these 
are  so  constructed  as  to  permit  the  display  of  both  exte- 
rior and  interior  workings.  Large  relief  maps  in  papier- 
mache  illustrate  the  geographical  and  geological  dis- 
tribution of  minerals,  and  ores;  while  upon  the  wall  hang 
charts  and  diagrams  giving  historical  and  statistical  data. 
Hard  by  are  the  headquarters  of  the  mine  engineering 
'  profession,  geologists,  and  other  scientists.  A  scientific 
library,  containing  several  thousand  volumes  of  rare  and 
valuable  works  on  gems,  minerals,  mining  and  metal- 
lurgy, catalogued  and  available  for  reference,  is  installed 
in  a  quiet  corner  of  the  gallery,  and  is  under  the  charge 
of  a  librarian.  Here,  too,  all  of  the  periodicals  devoted 

227 


to  these  industries  or  the  allied  sciences  have  files  of 
their  current  issues.  Rare  and  interesting  photographs, 
engravings,  and  prints  of  objects  possessing  special  and 
technical  interest,  are  exhibited  for  the  instruction  and 
entertainment  of  the  miner,  engineer,  and  scientist.  The 
laboratory  for  assaying  is  a  luxury  and  convenience  far- 
sightedly  provided  by  the  management.  It  is  conducted 
for  the  benefit  of  exhibitors,  but  so  many  interesting 
operations  are  involved  that  it  becomes  itself  a  fascinat' 
ing  and  instructive  exhibit. 

I  find  in  the  Chicago  Times  a  short  account  of  the  life 
and  character  of  the  department  chief  who  has  thus  ar- 
ranged to  make  dull  rocks,  crude  metals,  and  cumbrous 
machinery  narrate  the  history  of  mining  so  eloquently 
and  luminously.  He  is  Frederick  J.  V.  Skiff,  and  was 
born  in  Massachusetts  in  1851,  and  there  attended  school. 
He  went  west  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  and  became  a 
journalist.  In  time  he  came  to  be  part  owner  and  gen- 
eral manager  of  the  Denver  Tribune,  which  we  are  told 
"  required  a  great  deal  of  hustle  to  keep  it  ahead  of  the 
procession."  The  owners  sold  it,  and,  later,  Mr.  Skiff 
went  to  the  Legislature,  to  which  body  he  afterwards  de- 
clined re-election. 

'"  In  1889  he  was  appointed  Commissioner  of  the  State 
Bureau  of  Immigration  and  Statistics,  and  performed 
valuable  work  in  this  field.  He  was  made  a  member  of 
the  National  World's  Fair  Commission  to  represent  Colo- 
rado in  1890,  and  was  chosen  for  the  chairmanship  of  the 
Commission's  committee  on  mines  and  mining.  Director- 
general  Davis  named  him  for  chief  of  the  department 
of  mines  and  mining  in  June,  1891.  Under  the  act  of 
the  Legislature  of  Colorado  he  was  the  same  year  made 
a  member  of  the  Colorado  State  World's  Fair  Board. 

228 


During  his  residence  in  Colorado  he  has  been  interested 
more  or  less  in  mining  ventures,  and  during  his  profes- 
sional career,  and  in  his  official  capacity,  he  has  natu- 
rally written  and  spoken  a  great  deal  on  industrial  topics 
and  the  questions  of  raw  material  and  mining.  Mr. 
Skiff  made  a  collection  of  the  mineral  products  of  Colo- 
rado, which  was  placed  on  exhibition  in  Chicago  and 
St.  Louis  in  1889-90.  Mr.  Skiff  is  small  in  stature,  but 
he  is  big  in  intellect  and  large  in  the  hearts  of  his 
friends.  He  has  a  bulging  forehead,  with  more  than 
the  usual  quantity  of  brains  behind  it.  He  has  a  big, 
bright,  kindly  eye,  as  full  of  language  and  poetry  as  In- 
gersoll's.  He  is  a  fine  writer,  a  speaker  of  power  and 
fluency,  and  he  is  altogether  a  most  charming  man." 
Magnetic  would  have  been  a  stronger  word  than  charm 
ing,  but  otherwise  the  account  of  him  is  adequate. 

229 


CHAPTER    XXIII 
THE   FISHERIES   DISPLAY 

NEVER  before  was  a  collection  of  fishery  exhibits  dis- 
tinguished at  a  universal  exposition  as  ours  will  be  in 
Chicago  in  1893.  The  great  building  arranged  for  hous- 
ing the  collection  is  one  of  the  most  pleasing  of  the  Fair 
Ground  palaces,  as  well  as  one  of  the  least  conventional 
ones  in  its  form  and  ornamentation.  Mr.  Henry  Ives 
Cobb,  of  Chicago,  the  architect,  has  shown  great  courage 
in  decorating  the  structure  with  the  shapes  of  sea-creat- 
ures and  sea-forms  of  very  many  sorts  that  easily  lend 
their  outlines  to  artistic  uses.  The  pillars  and  arches 
of  the  colonnades  of  the  building,  for  instance,  are  rich- 
ly and  ingeniously  decked  with  turtles,  crabs,  lobsters, 
and  fish  of  various  kinds,  and  this  is  done  so  that  the 
effects  are  nearly  always  beautiful,  the  general  result  be- 
ing entirely  so.  The  type  which  the  building  copies  is 
the  Spanish  Romanesque,  and  its  uncommon  form — a 
combination  of  three  houses — '-is  so  ably  proportioned 
and  so  attractive  to  the  eye  that  many  visitors  will 
doubtless  fancy  it  above  most  of  the  other  structures 
on  the  grounds.  The  buildings  face  an  arm  of  the  La- 
goon, and  stand  between  it  and  Lake  Michigan.  They 
have  a  united  length  of  about  700  feet.  The  middle 
house,  which  is  rectangular  in  shape,  will  be  devoted 

230 


to  exhibits  illustrative  of  commercial  fisheries,  scientific 
investigation,  and  the  propagation  offish.  The  annexes 
are  polygonal  (sixteen-sided)  pavilions,  connected  with 
the  main  building  by  curved  arcades. 

The  East  Pavilion  is  built  for  the  showing  of  live  fish 
in  aquaria.  "  In  the  centre  of  this  building  will  be  a  ro- 
tunda about  sixty  feet  in  diameter;  in  the  middle  will 
be  a  basin  thirty  feet  wide,  in  the  centre  of  which  will 
be  a  mass  of  rocks  covered  with  moss  and  lichens.  From 
crevices  in  the  rocks  tiny  streams  of  water  will  rise  in 
miniature  fountains,  and  will  drop  in  spray  showers  to 
the  basin  below.  In  this  pool  will  be  many  bright-hued 
goldfish,  golden  ides,  golden  tench,  and  other  ornamental 
fishes,  as  well  as  aquatic  and  semi-aquatic  plants.  From 
the  rotunda  one  side  of  the  larger  series  of  aquaria  may 
be  viewed.  These  will  be  ten  in  number,  and  each  will 
have  a  capacity  of  from  7000  to  27,000  gallons  of  water." 

The  West  Pavilion  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  display  of 
the  angling  paraphernalia  of  our  own  and  foreign  coun- 
tries, and,  in  the  language  of  the  chief  of  the  depart- 
ment, "  bids  fair  to  be  the  most  comprehensive,  varied, 
complete,  and  interesting  collection  of  everything  per- 
taining to  the  'gentle  art '  that  can  possibly  be  brought 
together,  and  will  be  quite  unique  in  character  and  mar- 
vellous in  extent.  Not  only  is  it  expected  that  a  won- 
derful array  of  fishing-tackle,  tools,  and  implements  will 
be  displayed,  but  that  everything  bearing  on  the  subject, 
either  directly  or  remotely,  will  be  included."  This  is 
likely  to  compass  an  illustrative  collection,  showing  the 
evolution  of  the  angler's  science  from  prehistoric  times 
until  these  days,  as  well  as  the  processes  and  parapher- 
nalia of  modern  barbarians.  Out-of-doors  the  side  of  the 
Lagoon  will  be  picturesquely  set  with  fishing-camps  of 

231 


timber  and  canvas,  and  with  boats  and  camping  outfits, 
while  upon  the  adjacent  water  competitors  and  exhib- 
itors will  show  their  methods  of  trolling,  skittering,  fly 
casting,  and  bait  fishing. 

In  addition  to  the  ground-floor  space  in  the  buildings 
there  will  be  very  wide  galleries  in  the  main  structure, 
so  that,  in  all,  more  than  80,000  square  feet  of  room 
will  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  exhibitors  and  visitors. 
The  salt-water  for  the  exhibition  of  living  creatures  from 
the  oceans  will  be  brought  to  Chicago  in  a  condensed 
form,  at  one-fifth  its  natural  bulk,  and  will  then  be  re- 
stored to  its  original  condition  by  the  addition  of  fresh- 
water. It  is  expected  that  Captain  J.  W.  Collins,  who 
is  assistant  fish  commissioner  under  the  Government, 
as  well  as  the  energetic  chief  of  this  department  at  the 
Fair,  will  maintain  ponds  on  the  grounds  for  the  preser- 
vation of  fish  to  replace  those  which  die  in  the  tanks.  He 
will  exhibit  every  fish  native  to  inland  waters  as  well  as 
those  which  are  found  off  the  ocean  coasts — everything, 
I  should  say,  except  snakes  and  whales.  It  is  possible 
that  a  baby  whale  may  be  shown,  but  to  show  a  splendid 
one-hundred-and-fifty-barrel  right  whale  would  entail 
an  expense  for  which  the  department  is  not  prepared. 
There  will  be  sharks,  however,  and  specimens  of  every 
fish  of  lesser  size,  shown  in  glass  tanks  that  will  be  elec- 
trically illuminated  when  necessary.  Crabs,  lobsters,  oys- 
ters, as  they  live  and  grow,  eyeless  fish  and  all  the  rest, 
are  being  gathered  all  over  the  country. 

The  school-children  of  San  Diego  will  send  a  complete 
collection  of  California  fishes  in  alcohol  and  glass.  A 
Maine  fisherman  will  send  a  twenty-pound  lobster,  pre- 
pared by  a  taxidermist.  From  Colorado  will  come  a 
collection  of  prehistoric  fishes — the  oldest  in  the  world 

232 


— dug  out  of  rocks  of  the  Silurian  Period.  They  are  small, 
and  armored  with  bone  instead  of  scales.  Washington, 
richest  of  our  States  in  marine  wealth,  will  make  a  nota- 
ble display  illustrating  the  processes  of  salmon-catching 
by  Indians  and  by  modern  means  ;  of  canning,  packing, 
and  the  manufacture  of  all  fish  products.  She  will  show 
her  little  oysters  and  huge  crabs,  her  sea-otters,  beavers, 
fishers,  and  the  rest,  either  alive,  in  alcohol,  by  models  or 
by  paintings,  and  in  most  cases  by  every  form  of  exhi- 
bition. The  general,  national,  and  foreign  collection  will 
include  everything  that  relates  to  the  gathering  and 
preparation  of  pearls,  sponges,  and  all  other  sea  products. 
Workmen  are  now  making  counterfeit  forms  of  all 
American  fishes,  imitating  them  all  exactly  by  making 
them  of  an  especial  composition,  moulded  in  plaster 
casts  taken  from  the  creatures  themselves,  and  then  by 
painting  them.  A  feature  of  the  exhibit  will  be  a  restau- 
rant for  the  exclusive  service  of  fish. 
ZA  233 


CHAPTER   XXIV 
CONCLUSION 

QUITE  as  wonderful  and  interesting  as  any  of  the  de- 
partments and  especial  exhibits  that  I  have  described  in 
the  foregoing  pages  are  many  of  the  subjects  which,  be- 
cause of  lack  of  space  or  the  scantiness  of  the  informa- 
tion obtainable  when  this  was  written,  are  necessarily 
gathered  in  this  concluding  chapter  in  a  few  paragraphs. 
I  am  beholden  to  the  excellent  guide-book  published  by 
the  Department  of  Publicity  and  Promotion  for  many  of 
the  facts  and  figures  which  follow. 

The  World's  Columbian  Exposition  was  created  by 
act  of  Congress,  April  25,  1890.  The  President,  on  De- 
cember 24,  1890,  proclaimed  the  Exposition  to  the  world, 
and  invited  foreign  nations  to  participate.  The  officers 
of  the  national  board,  or  "  World's  Columbian  Commis- 
sion," are :  President,  Thomas  W.  Palmer ;  Secretary, 
John  T.  Dickinson  ;  Director-general,  George  R.  Davis. 
The  department  chiefs  are  as  follows :  Agriculture,  W. 
I.Buchanan;  Horticulture,  John  M.Samuels;  Live-stock, 
Eber  W.  Cottrell ;  Fish  and  Fisheries,  John  W.  Collins  ; 
Mines  and  Mining,  F.  J. V.  Skiff;  Machinery,  L. W.  Rob- 
inson ;  Transportation,  W.  A.  Smith  ;  Manufactures, 
James  Allison  ;  Electricity,  John  P.  Barrett ;  Fine  Arts, 
Halsey  C.  Ives  ;  Liberal  Arts,  S.  H.  Peabody ;  Ethnolo- 

234 


PENNSYLVANIA   BUILDING 


gy,  F.  W.  Putnam  ;  Forestry,  W.  I.  Buchanan,  in  charge; 
Publicity  and  Promotion,  Moses  P.  Handy;  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, Walker  Fearn  ;  Secretary  of  Installation,  Joseph 
Hirst ;  Traffic  Manager,  E.  E.  Jaycox ;  President  of  the 
Board  of  Lady  Managers,  Mrs.  Potter  Palmer;  Secretary, 
Mrs.  Susan  G.  Cook. 

The  officers  of  the  local  board,  or  "  World's  Columbian 
Exposition,"  are  :  President,  William  T.  Baker  ;  First 
Vice-president,  H.  N.  Higinbotham ;  Second  Vice-presi- 
dent, R.  A.  Waller  ;  Secretary,  H.  O.  Edmonds ;  Treas- 
urer, A.  F.  Seeberger;  Auditor,  William  K.  Ackerman ; 
Chief  of  Construction,  D.  H.  Burnham. 

The  consulting  or  advisory  board  of  architects  con- 
sists of  Richard  M.  Hunt,  Administration  Building;  W. 
L.  B.  Jenney,  Horticulture  Building ;  McKim,  Mead  & 
White,  Agriculture  Building ;  Adler  &  Sullivan,  Trans- 
portation Building  ;  George  B.  Post,  Manufactures  Build- 
ing; Henry  Ives  Cobb,  Fisheries  Building;  Peabody  & 
Stearns,  Machinery  Building  ;  S.  S.  Beman,  Mines  and 
Mining  Building;  Van  Brunt  &  Howe,  Electricity  Build- 
ing. C.  B.  Atwood,  Designer-in-Chief  of  the  Construc- 
tion Department,  is  the  architect  of  the  Peristyle,  Co- 
lumbus Porticus,  Music-hall,  and  Casino,  the  Fine  Arts, 
Forestry,  and  Dairy  Buildings,  and  the  Terminal  Depot. 
Miss  Sophia  G.  Hayden  is  architect  of  the  Woman's 
Building. 

The  space  under  the  roofs  of  all  the  buildings  and 
sheds  is  more  than  200  acres.  The  grounds  themselves 
comprise  633  acres.  The  admission  fee  during  the  Ex- 
position, from  May  I  to  October  30,  1893,  will  be  50 
cents.  The  Fair  Grounds  are  seven  miles  south  of  the 
City  Hall,  and  can  be  reached  from  the  heart  of  the  city 
by  frequent  trains  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  which 

235 


make  the  trip  to  Woodlawn  (beside  the  Fair  Grounds)  in 
forty-five  minutes,  at  a  cost  of  25  cents  for  the  round 
trip ;  by  several  lines  of  steamboats  starting  near  the 
foot  of  Van  Buren  Street,  and  making  the  trip  in  an 
hour,  for  the  same  fare  ;  and  by  the  Cottage  Grove  Av- 
enue cable-cars,  which  afford  a  slower  but  delightful  ride 
for  5  cents  fare. 

The  foreign  nations  which  will  formally  or  informally 
participate  in  the  Exposition  are  here  set  down,  together 
with  the  amounts  of  money  they  have  set  apart  for  their 
expenses.  This  does  not  include  the  sums  of  money, 
often  very  large  indeed,  which  individual  exhibitors  will 
spend,  or  which  their  displays  will  cost. 


Argentine  Republic $100,000 

Austria 102,300 

Belgium 57, 900 

Bolivia 30,700 

Brazil 600,000 

Bulgaria 

Chile  (informal)   

China 500,000 

Colombia 100,000 

Costa  Rica 150,000 

Denmark 67,000 

Danish  West  Indies  ....        1,200 

Ecuador 125,000 

Egypt  (informal) 

France  733, 400 

Algeria 

French  Guiana 

Germany 690,200 

Great  Britain 291,990 

Bahamas 

Barbadoes 5,840 

Bermuda 2,920 

British  Guiana 25,000 

British  Honduras 7, 500 


Canada $100,000 

Cape  Colony 50,000 

Ceylon 65,600 

Fiji 

India 

Jamaica 24,333 

Leeward  Islands 6,000 

Malta 

Mashon  aland 

Mauritius 

Newfoundland 

New  South  Wales 243,325 

New  Zealand 27, 500 

Queensland  (informal). . . 

South  Australia 

Straits  Settlements 

Tasmania 10,000 

Trinidad 15,000 

Victoria 97>33O 

West  Australia 

Greece 57,ooo 

Guatemala 200,000 

Hawaii 

Hayti 25,000 


236 


Honduras $20,000 

Italy 

Erythria 

Japan 630, 765 

Korea 

Liberia 

Madagascar 

Mexico 50,000 

Morocco 150,000 

Netherlands 

Dutch  Guiana 10,000 

Dutch  West  Indies 5,000 

Nicaragua 30,000 

Norway... 56,280 

Orange  Free  State 7, 500 

Paraguay 100,000 

Persia 

Peru 140,000 

Portugal  (informal) 

Madeira  , , 


Roumania 

Russia $46,320 

Salvador 12,500 

San  Domingo 25,000 

Servia 

Siam 

Spain 14,000 

Cuba 25,000 

Porto  Rico 

Sweden 53,600 

Switzerland 23, 160 

Transvaal 

Turkey 

Uruguay 24,000 

Venezuela. . 


Total $5,936,063 

Fifty  nations. 
Thirty-four  colonies. 


Forty  States  and  Territories  had,  at  the  time  this  was 
compiled,  determined  to  erect  buildings  on  the  grounds. 
These  buildings  will  cost  from  $10,000  to  $100,000  each, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Illinois  building,  which  cost 
$250,000,  and  almost  ranks  with  the  principal  palaces  in 
the  park.  These  are  the  States  whose  Legislatures  have 
appropriated  sums  for  State  buildings,  with  the  sums 
thus  voted : 


Arizona .    $30,000 

California 300,000 

Colorado 100,000 

Delaware 10,000 

Idaho 20,000 

Illinois 800,000 

Indiana 75,ooo 

Iowa 130,000 

Kentucky 100,000 


Louisiana $36,000 

Maine 40,000 

Maryland 60,000 

Massachusetts 150,000 

Michigan 10,000 

Minnesota 50,000 

Missouri 150,000 

Montana 50,000 

Nebraska 50,000 


237 


Total $3,441,000 


New  Hampshire $25,000  Vermont $15,000 

New  Jersey 70,000  Virginia 25,000 

New  Mexico 25,000  Washington 100,000 

New  York 300,000  West  Virginia 40,000 

North  Carolina 25,000  Wisconsin 65,000 

North  Dakota 25,000  Wyoming 30,000 

Ohio 125,000 

Pennsylvania 300,000 

Rhode  Island 50,000 

Funds  to  be  raised  by  other  States  by  subscription $385,000 

The  States  which  have  made  appropriations  are,  in 
many  cases,  raising  additional  sums  by  subscription,  or 
hope  to  get  additional  appropriations.  It  is  predicted 
that  the  total  amount  that  will  be  raised  and  expended 
by  all  the  Commonwealths  and  Territories  will  approxi- 
mate $5,000,000.  Alabama,  Arkansas,  Florida,  Georgia, 
Kansas,  Oregon,  and  South  Dakota  are  the  States  which 
have  failed  to  make  appropriations.  The  commissioners 
at  work  in  Georgia  and  Kansas  are  pledged  to  raise 
$100,000  each;  Oregon  and  Florida  hope  to  raise 
$50,000  apiece. 

The  United  States  Government  Building — not  one  of 
the  most  admirable  structures  from  an  artistic  point  of 
view — is  415  feet  long  and  345  feet  wide,  with  a  floor 
surface  of  6.1  acres.  It  cost  $400,000,  and  was  designed 
by  Government  Architect  Windrim.  The  Government 
display  includes  exhibits  by  the  departments  of  War, 
State,  Post-office,  Treasury,  Justice,  Agriculture,  Interior, 
the  Fish  Commission,  National  Museum,  and  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution.  The  Mint  will  contribute  examples 
of  every  coin  made  by  the  United  States,  and  the  Bureau 
of  Engraving  and  Printing  will  send  samples  of  all  the 
paper-money.  A  life-saving  station,  completely  equip- 
ped, will  be  in  operation  on  the  lake  shore.  There  will 

238 


be  shown  a  map  of  the  United  States  400  feet  square, 
made  of  plaster,  and  on  a  scale  showing  the  exact  curva- 
ture of  the  earth's  surface,  the  height  of  mountains,  etc. 
There  will  be  an  exhibit  of  heavy  guns  and  explosives, 
and  a  daily  battery  drill  in  the  space  east  of  the  Govern- 
ment Building.  The  famous  brick  battle-ship,  sheathed 
in  armor,  and  looking  like  a  real  vessel,  though  built 
upon  the  lake  bottom,  is  part  of  the  Federal  exhibit.  It 
cost  $100,000,  and  is  348  feet  long  by  69  feet  and  3 
inches  width  amidships.  The  exhibit  of  the  Navy  De- 
partment will  be  shown  in  this  ship.  The  very  large 
guns  on  board  will  be  "  make-believe,"  but  the  machine- 
guns  and  smaller  arms  will  be  actual  weapons.  The 
boat  will  be  manned  like  a  man-of-war,  and  the  life  of 
our  blue-jackets  aboard  ship  will  be  followed  to  the  let- 
ter. The  uniform  of  our  naval  sailors  in  the  past  will  be 
worn  by  janitors  on  the  vessel. 

But  the  most  interesting  reminder  of  war  at  the  Expo- 
sition will  be  the  display  made  by  Herr  Krupp,  the  gun- 
maker  of  Essen,  in  Germany.  His  exhibit  cannot  be 
landed  in  New  York,  or,  in  fact,  anywhere  on  our  coast 
except  at  Sparrow  Point,  where  a  great  steel-works  em- 
ploys a  crane  that  will  lift  135  tons.  The  great  Krupp  gun 
weighs  122  tons.  It  is  said  to  be  as  thick  at  the  breech 
as  the  average  lower  story  of  a  house,  and  it  is  fifty-four 
feet  in  length.  The  railroad  company  that  is  to  transport 
it  to  Chicago  is  obliged  to  build  cars  specially  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  it  and  its  accessaries,  and  these  are 
constructed  after  plans  prepared  by  Krupp.  The  Ger- 
man Government  will  show,  in  front  of  the  Krupp  ex- 
hibit, a  mediaeval  fort  with  bastions  projecting  into  the 
lake  and  mounted  by  rude  and  very  ancient  cannon,  the 
property  of  the  Krupps. 

239 


The  Eiffel  Tower  of  this  World's  Fair  is  no  tower  at 
all,  but  merely  one  of  the  Exhibition  palaces.  It  is  the 
building  for  Manufactures  and  Liberal  Arts.  It  is  by 
far  the  largest  house  the  modern  world  contains.  It  is 
1687  feet  long  and  787  feet  wide,  so  that  to  walk  around 
it  is  to  move  4948  feet,  or  only  about  300  feet  short  of  a 
mile.  The  great  trusses  of  its  roof — the  largest  ever 
built  —  have  a  span  of  382  feet,  and  of  354  feet  in  the 
clear.  The  height  of  the  trusses  over  the  central  hall 
is  212.9  feet»  ^e  clear  space  between  the  floor  and  the 
roof  being  202.9  feet.  The  building  covers  30.47  acres, 
and  with  its  galleries  offers  44  acres  of  floor  space.  It 
cost  $1,700,000.  It  contains  17,000,000  feet  of  lumber, 
12,000,000  pounds  of  steel  in  the  trusses  over  the  cen- 
tral hall,  and  2,000,000  pounds  of  iron  in  the  roof  of 
the  nave.  Mr.  George  B.  Post,  the  architect,  of  New 
York,  who  designed  the  building,  did  not  at  first  include 
the  vast  roof,  which  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world. 
The  structure  included  a  central  court  with  the  features 
of  a  noble  garden ;  but  when  more  space  was  demanded 
than  was  contained  in  the  outer  pavilions  enclosing  this 
court,  a  bit  of  charcoal  held  between  the  fingers  of  the 
architect  swept  over  the  plan  of  the  building,  marking  a 
curve  that  bridged  over  the  central  space  arid  outlined 
the  character  of  the  .edifice  as  it  is  now  completed.  That 
stroke  of  the  charcoal  added  a  cost  of  $450,000,  but  en- 
nobled the  building  as  none  of  the  sort  ever  was. 

The  official  guide  issued  by  Major  Handy's  department 
makes  known  these  extraordinary  facts  about  this  colos- 
sal pile : 

"  The  building  is  rectangular  in  form,  and  the  interior 
is  divided  into  a  great  central  hall,  380  by  1280  feet, 
which  is  surrounded  by  a  nave,  107  feet  wide.  Both 

240 


hall  and  nave  have  a  5ofoot  gallery,  extending  entirely 
around  them.  This  building  is  the  largest  in  the  world, 
and  is  the  largest  one  ever  roofed  over.  Its  unequalled  size 
makes  it  one  of  the  architectural  wonders  of  the  world. 
It  is  three  times  larger  than  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Peter, 
in  Rome,  and  any  church  in  Chicago  could  be  placed  in 
the  vestibule  of  St.  Peter's.  It  is  four  times  larger  than 
the  old  Roman  Colosseum,  which  seated  80,000  persons. 
If  the  great  pyramid  Cheops  could  be  removed  to  Chi- 
cago, it  could  be  piled  up  in  this  building  with  the  gal- 
leries left  from  which  to  view  the  stone.  The  central 
hall,  which  is  a  single  room  without  a  supporting  pillar 
under  its  roof,  has  in  its  floor  a  fraction  less  than  eleven 
acres,  and  75,000  persons  can  sit  in  this  room,  giving 
each  one  six  square  feet  of  space.  By  the  same  arrange- 
ment, the  entire  building  will  seat  300,000  people.  It  is 
theoretically  possible  to  mobilize  the  standing  army  of 
Russia  under  its  roof.  There  are  7,000,000  feet  of  lum- 
ber in  the  floor,  and  it  required  five  car-loads  of  nails  to 
fasten  the  215  car-loads  of  flooring  to  the  joists.  Six 
games  of  out-door  base-ball  might  be  played  simulta- 
neously on  this  floor,  and  the  ball  batted  from  either 
field  would  insure  the  batsman  a  "  home  run."  The  Au- 
ditorium is  the  most  notable  building  in  Chicago,  but 
twenty  such  buildings  could  be  placed  on  this  floor. 
There  are  1 1  acres  of  skylights  and  40  car-loads  of  glass 
in  the  roof.  The  iron  and  steel  structure  of  this  roof 
would  build  two  Brooklyn  bridges,  while  there  is  in  it 
1400  tons  more  metal  than  in  the  Eades  Bridge  at  St. 
Louis.  There  are  22  main  trusses  in  the  roof  of  the  cen- 
tral hall,  and  it  required  600  flat  cars  to  bring  them  from 
the  iron-works  to  Chicago.  These  trusses  are  twice  the 
size  of  the  next  largest  in  existence,  which  are  90  feet 

Q  241 


high  and  span  250  feet.  The  latter  are  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad  Depot  at  Jersey  City. 

"The  lumber  in  the  Manufactures  Building  represents 
1 100  acres  of  average  Michigan  pine-trees.  This  build- 
ing will  be  provided  with  10,000  electric  lights.  Its 
aisles  will  be  laid  off  as  streets,  and  lighted  by  orna- 
mental lamp-posts,  bearing  shielded  arc  lights." 

The  Machinery  Hall,  the  work  of  Messrs.  Peabody  & 
Stearns,  of  Boston,  cost  $1,200,000,  and  offers  6.2  acres 
of  floor  space.  It  is  846  feet  long  and  492  feet  deep,  and 
the  main  building  is  built  as  if  it  were  made  up  of  three 
train-sheds  side  by  side,  the  trusses  of  the  shed  roofs 
reaching  100  feet  in  air,  and  having  a  span  of  130  feet. 
In  the  power-house  adjoining  the  building  24,000  horse- 
power will  be  provided,  one  of  the  great  engines  being 
twice  the  size  of  the  world-famous  monster  "  Corliss," 
that  was  a  notable  feature  of  the  Philadelphia  Centen- 
nial Exposition.  For  supplying  part  of  the  power  need- 
ed by  the  Electrical  Building  there  will  be  a  multipolar 
dynamo  of  enormous  size,  and  of  1500  horse -power, 
coupled  by  an  axle  directly  to  a  triple-expansion  engine. 
The  boilers  in  the  power-house  will  constitute  a  battery 
600  feet  in  width. 

A  beautiful  exhibition  will  be  that  in  the  Horticultural 
Building,  whose  dome,  rising  as  lightly  as,  and  with  the 
transparency  of,  a  soap-bubble,  is  of  glass,  and  is  180  feet 
in  diameter  and  132  feet  in  height.  Mr.  L.  B.  Jenney, 
of  Chicago,  is  its  architect,  and  it  cost  $300,000.  It  is 
formed  of  three  pavilions,  and  will,  amid  the  wealth  of 
the  plants  and  flowers  of  the  wide  world,  display  the 
tallest  tree-ferns,  palms,  and  bamboos.  There  is  no  use 
of  iron  in  the  great  Forestry  Building;  even  the  place  of 
bolts  being  taken  by  wood  in  the  form  of  pins.  The  ex- 

242 


terior  will  show  a  grand  series  of  columns  made  of  tree- 
trunks  with  the  bark  left  on.  There  is  a  floor  area  of 
fifteen  acres  in  the  richly  decorated  and  beautifully  de- 
signed structure  for  the  agricultural  display.  It  is  the 
work  of  Messrs.  McKim,  Meade  &  White,  of  New  York. 
This  also  supports  a  great  central  dome  of  glass,  which 
in  this  building  is  130  feet  high.  The  cost  of  the  build- 
ing was  $620,000.  For  the  Stock  Exhibit  are  sheds  en- 
closing forty  acres,  and  a  pavilion  containing  an  amphi- 
theatre and  exhibition  ring.  This  series  of  structures 
caused  an  outlay  of  $335,000.  Near  the  Sixty-second 
Street  (Woodlawn)  entrance  to  the  grounds  is  a  com- 
plete and  modern  hospital  for  the  treatment  of  all  who 
are  injured  or  taken  ill  upon  the  grounds.  The  buildings 
of  all  sorts  are  insured  against  fire,  and  the  amount  of 
insurance  has  been  increased  as  the  work  on  the  Fair 
Grounds  has  progressed.  It  is  thought  that,  finally,  the 
buildings  will  carry  an  insurance  in  $6,000,000,  while  the 
full  insurance  taken  by  the  Exposition  officials  for  its 
own  property  and  goods  held  by  it  in  trust  may  reach 
$15,000,000. 

An  independent  exhibit,  already  at  Chicago,  is  the  old 
whaler  Progress  of  New  Bedford,  Mass.  She  is  a  splen- 
did example  of  the  type  of  vessels  which  formed  our 
once  formidable  whaling  fleet  of  romantic  memory. 
Bark -rigged,  with  immense  spars,  and  with  her  hull 
painted  like  a  corvette,  she  looks  as  trim  as  a  war-ship. 
Her  history  warrants  the  exhibition,  for  she  has  seven- 
teen times  rounded  the  Horn,  and  has  forty  times  sailed 
into  the  Arctic  Ocean.  She  carries  all  the  paraphernalia 
of  a  whaler,  and  her  equipment  forms  a  museum. 

At  least  one  feature  of  a  private  collection  of  Alaskan 
curios  that  will  be  brought  to  the  Fair  by  a  trader  will 
2B  243 


interest  all  who  love  the  beautiful.  This  will  be  a  num- 
ber of  blankets  of  the  down  of  eagles,  which  the  coast 
Indians  make  by  pulling  the  feathers  out  and  piecing  the 
skins  of  the  great  birds  together. 

The  Government  has  recognized  the  World's  Congress 
Auxiliary  as  the  proper  body  to  superintend  the  holding 
of  a  series  of  world's  congresses  in  Chicago  during  the 
Fair.  The  officers  are:  C.  C.  Bonney,  President;  Thomas 
B.  Bryan,  Vice-president  ;  Lyman  J.  Gage,  Treasurer; 
Benjamin  Butterworth,  Secretary  ;  Clarence  E.  Young, 
Assistant  Secretary.  Agriculture,  Art,  Commerce  and 
Finance,  Education,  Engineering,  Government,  Litera- 
ture, Labor,  Medicine,  Moral  and  Social  Reform,  Music, 
the  Press,  Religion,  Science  and  Philosophy,  Sunday 
Rest,  Temperance,  and  a  miscellaneous  or  general  divis- 
ion—  embracing  topics  not  included  under  these  head- 
ings— are  the  classified  subjects  to  be  discussed.  But 
these,  in  turn,  have  been  subdivided  into  several  times 
as  many  divisions,  each  to  be  the  subject  of  a  congress, 
and  each  in  charge  of  a  committee.  The  congresses  will, 
in  general,  be  held  in  the  new  building  of  the  Art  Insti- 
tute, now  in  course  of  erection  on  the  lake  front,  in  the 
heart  of  the  city. 

244 


THE  CHICAGO  FIRE 


SOME   NEW  LIGHT   ON   THE  OLD  STORY 
BY   HOWARD   H.  GROSS 

'HREE  years  of  careful  research  and  study  devoted 
by  the  writer  to  gathering  data  for  the  creation  of 
the  great  Cyclorama  of  the  Chicago  Fire,  now  so 
happily  completed,  brought  to  light  considerable 
new  matter,  some  of  which  seemed  to  him  to  be  of 
great  interest,  the  most  important  being  the  discov- 
ery of  the  origin  of  the  fire.  Contrary  to  popular 
belief,  neither  Mrs.  O'Leary  nor  her  still  more  fa- 
mous cow  was  the  responsible  party;  but  it  was 
rather  a  couple  of  nervous  lovers  who  were  called 
upon  by  an  assemblage  of  friends  to  procure,  by  hook  or  crook, 
sufficient  milk  to  serve  some  oysters  for  the  party.  It  was  sug- 
gested that  they  make  their  way  by  stealth  into  the  O'Leary  stables 
and  milk  some  of  the  cows  there.  The  action  quickly  followed  the 
thought;  an  entry  was  soon  made.  The  yoang  lady,  though  nat- 
urally nervous,  was  now  even  more  so,  in  the  unique  position  of 
barn-breaker;  and  the  scampering-away  of  an  innocent  mouse  was 
all  that  was  necessary  to  cause  her  to  drop  the  lamp  she  was  car- 
rying. The  world  and  the  Insurance  Companies  know  the  rest. 

The  figures  that  pertain  to  the  great  Fire  are  astounding;  and  it 
is  only  when  one  stands  upon  the  platform  of  the  wonderful  Cyclo- 
rama of  the  Chicago  Fire,  amid  the  historic  ruins  of  the  old  city, 
when  palace  and  hovel  are  joining  the  kingdom  of  ashes  with 
fire — fire  everywhere — we  can  realize  that  from  start  to  finish  the 
flames  swept  over  an  area  and  reduced  to  ruin  125  acres  of  buildings 
every  hour;  that  it  wiped  out  property  at  the  alarming  rate  of  $2500 
at  every  heart-beat,  a  million  dollars  every  five  minutes,  all  night 
and  all  day  long;  that  the  flames  turned  six  thousand  people  home- 
less into  the  streets  every  hour ;  that  if  all  the  buildings  burned  were 
placed  end  to  end  they  would  make  an  unbroken  row  a  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  long.  It  is  only  then  the  mind  can  grasp  in  any  true 
degree  the  scope  and  character  of  this  greatest  of  all  disasters. 


ARCHITECTS   OF   DAINTY   WOMAN'S   HEAD-DRESS 


Sisters  !   look  ye, 

How  by  a  new  creation  of  my  milliner's, 

I've  shook  off  old  mortality ! 

— JOHN  FORD. 

IT  has  been  said  by  one  whose  sayings  have  become  a  part  of  the 
common  lore  of  all  mankind  that  "  the  mantle  makes  the  man." 
With  equal  truth  it  may  be  asserted  that  the  bonnet  makes 
the  beauty. 

' '  Virtue  may  flourish  in  an  old  cravat ; 
But  man  and  nature  scorn  a  shocking  hat." 

Dainty  woman  needs  a  dainty  bonnet  —  and  knows 
it.      Susceptible  man  admires — and  pays  for  it. 

A  community  may  scorn  the  refinements  of  dress,  as 
they  sometimes  do  those  of  mind  and  manner,  but  the 
fact  remains  that  Fashion  is  king,  the  milliner  an  auto- 
crat whose  creations  are  the  thermometer  that  marks  the 
march  of  civilization.  The  char- 
acter and  refinement  of  the  people  of  a 
nation  may  be  very  accurately  judged 
by  the  bonnets  of  its  belles.  Paris, 
where  sooner  or  later  are  met  all  whom 
genius  endows  with  fame,  wears  as  the 
fitting  crown  of  superiority  the  produc- 
tions of  the  master -milliners  of  the 
world.  London  and  New  York  have 
indexed  their  progress  by  the  art  of 
the  milliner-  as  well  as  that  of  the  poet, 
painter,  and  sculptor.  Chicago,  and  the  country  tributary  to  it, 


boasted  always  of  its  beautiful  women,  and  may  now  assert,  without 
fear  of  contradiction,  that  their  pretty  faces  peep  from  beneath  pret- 
ty bonnets.  Rapid  transit,  modern  means  for  the  quick  interchange 
of  ideas,  the  aspirations  of  American  women  themselves,  the  de- 
mands of  the  enterprising  milliners  of  the  minor  cities  and  towns, 
and  the  up-to-date  methods  of  the  young  men  who  have  of  late 
assumed  control  of  the  old  firm  of  GAGE  BROTHERS  &  Co.  are  re- 
sponsible for  this  fact.  This  firm,  which  is  one  of  the  seniors  in 
Chicago  business  circles,  was  established  in  1856,  and  has  a  reputa- 


tion that  is  a  synonym 
ness    integrity.      With 
poration  and  the  advent 
dictatorship  of  fashion 
long   years    of   faithful 
sists  of  five  young,  vig- 
ive    Chicagoans:    Messrs. 
Wetherell,    A.    A.    Adams, 
Geo.    Ebeling.      All    young 
nected   with   leading  whole- 
go,  these  gentlemen  are  most 
the  millinery  trade.      They 
great   need  in  their  line 
The  milliner's  de- 
signs— patterns — 
stamped  with   ar- 


for   success    and   busi- 
the    firm's    late    incor- 
of    young     blood,  the 
in    millinery   has    crowned 
endeavor.     The    firm    con- 
orous,  and    progress- 
Fred.    Bode,    C.    C. 
C.    L.    Nelson,    and 
men,  and    long    con- 
sale  houses  of  Chica- 
favorably  known    to 
have    grasped    the 
and    supplied    it. 
mand    is    for    de- 
fashionable     and 
tistic     originality, 
hats    that    will    match 
with  which  to  trim  them, 


Next  they  want  hats — 
these  designs,  and  the  materials 
and  in  perfect  consonance  with  the  patterns.  The  undisputed  pre- 
eminence of  GAGE  BROTHERS  &  Co.  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they 
have  helped  to  make  and  then  meet  this  demand.  Their  patterns 
are  always  the  best  product  of  the  best  artists.  Their  motto  is — 
Fashion  first  and  always.  Equally  important,  their  hats  and  mate- 
rials are  purchased  by  master-buyers,  and  ever  with  the  patterns  in 
view.  These  two  facts  are  the  foundation  upon  which  GAGE 
BROTHERS  &  Co.  have  built  a  national  reputation.  It  is  their  de- 
termination that  customers,  after  viewing  their  patterns,  the  product 


of  great  artists,  shall  make  their  purchases  from  a  stock  every  ar- 
ticle of  which  is  in  harmony  with  the  patterns  shown.  Pattern, 
hat,  and  material  are  purchased  by  skilled  buyers — buyers  with  the 


them  harmonious  and 
That  which  is  pictured 
Co.'s  pattern -room  is 
chased  in  the  stock- 
the  great  stock  that 
of  their  big  store  at 
Avenue  the  law  of  af- 
and  design  rules  su- 
department  of  its  own,  under 


one  great  point  in  view,  of  making 
satisfying  in  every  respect, 
in  GAGE  BROTHERS  & 
to  be  found  and  pur- 
rooms.  All  through 
crowds  the  five  floors 
118  and  120  Wabash 
finity  in  color,  shape, 
preme.  The  firm  has  a  pattern 
the  supervision  of  master-designers,  who  originate  new  styles  and  de- 
signs based  upon  the  best  creations  of  Paris.  Special  departments 
for  the  design  of  mourning  bonnets,  Oyk.  children's  hats,  and 
low-priced  trimmed  hats  are  also  a  ^f^njif^'*  feature  of  the  firm. 
Add  to  GAGE  BROTHERS  &  Co.'s  d^^^fe^  special  pre-emi- 
nence in  the  artistic  department  of  its  business  the  fact  that*  it 
ever  fills  orders  promptly  and  correctly,  and  employs  a  quota  of 
courteous  and  intelligent  salesmen  unrivalled  in  their  line,  and  the 
reader  will  have  formed  a  fair  conception  of  the  great  business  house 
whose  pride  it  is  to  create  and  sell 


"A  woman's  bonnet  built  to  fit  its  place." 


parson,  Leach  &  C°-» 

~ 


-DEALERS    IN- 

PUBLIC  SECURITIES. 


115  DEARBORN  STREET,  CHICAGO. 
2  WALL  STREET,  NEW  YORK. 


Full  descriptive  lists  of  high-grade  City, 
County,  Town,  and  School  Loans,  paying 
from  4%  to  6#,  mailed  on  application. 


We  Offer  the  Most  Attractive 

LIST  OF  INVESTMENT  BONDS 

the   market  affords. 


Our  friends  visiting  New  York  or  Chicago  are  invited 
to  make  headquarters  at  our  offices.  In  writing  men- 
tion "  Harper's  World's  Fair  Book." 


[-[EALTH 

SUGGESTIONS. 


YOU   NEED  EXERCISE  — there  are  several 

REASONS    WHY. 

IF  YOU  ARE  A  BUSINESS  MAN,  to  clear  your  brain,  to  smooth  off 
the  rough  edges  of  business  cares.  The  Rambler  Bicycle  affords 
a  medium  par  excellence  for  "comfortable  exercise." 

IF  IN  POOR  HEALTH,  you  can  regain  good  health  through  the  judicious 
use  of  the  Bicycle— the  Rambler  Spring  Frame  reduces  excessive 
vibration  and  makes  exercise  safe.  fc 

IF  IN  GOOD  HEALTH,  Bicycle  Riding  will  keep  you  so.  In  your  chil-  | 
dren  the  Bicycle  lays  the  foundation  of  a  healthful  and  useful  j 
life.  A  good  intellect  reaches  its  highest  excellence  only  in  a  | 
healthy  body. 

IF  YOU  ARE  A  WOMAN,  the  Bicycle  affords  a  most  pleasant  means  of 
obtaining  exercise,  which  you,  of  all  others,  most  need.    Riding  | 
any  Bicycle  is  exercise — riding  Rambler  Bicycles  is  "comfortable  | 
and  luxurious  exercise." 

IF  YOU  ARE  BEAUTIFUL,  Bicycle  Riding  will  preserve  your  beauty.  | 
Exercise  means  health.  There  is  no  real  Beauty  without  Good  S 
Health. 

IF  YOU  ARE  NOT  A  BEAUTY,  you  may  at  least  make  yourself  more 
attractive.    The  Bicycle  brightens  the  eye,  puts  a  flush  of  health 
on  the  cheek,  takes  you  out  to  nature,  to  the  pure  fresh  air.  They  § 
are  yours;  enjoy  them— do  it "  luxuriously  "  on  a  Rambler  Bicycle. 

V 

Our  welcome  awaits  you  at  the  "  World's  Fair,"  upstairs  in  the  Transportation  Building,  where  f 

may  be  seen  our  complete  line  of  Ramblers,  for  Man,  Woman,  Boy,  and  Girl,  with  Spring 

Frame  or  Rigid  Frame,  for  pleasure  bicycling,  scorching,  or  racing ;  or  if  you  will 

mention  this  book,  our  catalogue,  teeming  with  Rambler  points  of  interest, 

will  be  mailed  to  you.     It  is  free  to  you. 

GORMULLY  &  JEFFERY  MFG.  CO, 

^'1    221=229,  222=228  N.  Franklin  St.,  Chicago. 

/  174-178  Columbus  Ave., 


BOSTON. 

1325  i4thSt.,N.W., 
WASHINGTON. 


85  Hadison  St., 
CHICAGO. 

Cor.  57th  St.  and  Broadway, 
NEW  YORK. 


King's  Head  Chambers,  Coventry,  England. 


Comfort  atThe  World's  Fair. 


Visitors  in  Chicago  during  the  progress  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  will  be  especially 
fortunate  if  they  have  secured  before  leaving  their  homes  such  hotel  accommodations  as 
they  require  while  there.  Those  who  best  see  the  Great  Fair,  and  take  away  the  pleasantest 
impressions  by  reason  of  having  seen  it  in  comfort  and  peace,  will  be  the  ones  who  locate 
near  the  grounds.  It  is  a  mistake,  however,  to  engage  rooms  on  the  lines  of  the  main 
entrances,  because  of  the  noise,  dust,  and  confusion  sure  to  exist  in  the  immediate  vicinity 
of  the  direct  approaches. 

THE  HOTEL  "  SOUTH  SHORE  "  is  located  just  south  of  the  Exposition  Grounds, 
fronting  Lake  Michigan  and  a  beautiful  beach,  only  seven  blocks  distant  from  the  Expo- 
sition. For  transportation  facilities  it  has: 

1.  Double-track  electric  street-car  line  running  direct  from  the  west  entrance  on  Coles 
Avenue  to  the  Exposition  Grounds. 

2.  Suburban  service  on  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  three  blocks  distant,  to  Exposition 
Grounds  (west  entrance),  five  minutes ;  to  centre  of  city,  thirty  minutes.     This  line  now 
runs  twenty-eight  suburban  trains  daily  each  way,  and  this  number  will  be  increased  dur- 
ing the  Exposition  period. 

3.  Lake  transportation  four  blocks  distant.     This  line  is  one  of  the  largest  on  the 
lakes.     Its  passenger  steamers  will  run  to  the  Exposition  Grounds,  centre  of  city,  and  all 
lake  points  between  Waukegan  on  the  north  and  Michigan  City  on  the  south. 

The  "  SOUTH  SHORE  "  is  away  from  Chicago's  smoke,  dirt,  and  noise,  but  in  perfect  and 
immediate  touch  with  every  point  of  interest.  It  is  under  the  shadow  of  the  Exposition 
Buildings,  but  away  from  the  Exposition  crowds.  The  entire  building  will  be  lighted  by 
electricity.  Ample  provision  has  been  made  to  secure  perfect  ventilation,  so  that  every 
room  shall  be  cool  and  open  to  air  currents.  Solid  plastered  partitions  render  each  room 
entirely  private  and  secure.  Especial  care  has  been  given  the  plumbing,  and  few  buildings 
are  better  equipped  with  sanitary  appliances.  No  expense  has  been  spared  to  make  it 
safe  and  to  provide  every  precaution  against  fire  and  other  accidents.  Standing  near  the 
shore  of  Lake  Michigan,  where  the  cool  breezes  insure  pleasant  nights  and  comfortable 
days,  where  the  bustle  and  annoying  crowds  of  the  great  Exposition  will  not  intrude,  the 
"  SOUTH  SHORE"  is  an  ideal  "  home,"  and  no  visitor  to  Chicago  in  1893  will  be  able  to 
secure  one  more  nearly  perfect  in  all  respects. 

EVENING  AT  THE  EXPOSITION  will  be  the  most  attractive  part  of  the  day. 
The  electric  and  other  illuminations  will  be  beyond  anything  ever  attempted  heretofore, 
and  no  one  can  afford  to  miss  enjoying  them.  The  "  SOUTH  SHORE,"  located  as  it  is 
within  ten  minutes'  walk  of  the  Exposition  Grounds,  is  so  easily  accessible  that  its  guests 
can  remain  until  the  close  of  these  SPECIAL  EVENING  DISPLAYS,  and  then  be  able  to  reach 
their  rooms,  even  if  obliged  to  walk,  within  a  few  minutes  thereafter;  while  others  stopping 
at  distant  hotels  will  still  be  struggling  to  secure  even  standing  room  in  cars  that  will  be 
heated  and  packed  with  the  tired  visitors. 

FULL  INFORMATION,  including  a  Bird's-eye  View  of  the  Hotel  "  SOUTH  SHORE" 
and  World's  Columbian  Exposition  Grounds  (size  16x26  inches),  and  complete  Descriptive 
Circulars  of  the  Columbian  Visitors'  Association,  proprietors  of  Hotel  "SOUTH  SHORE,' 
will  be  sent  FREE  to  any  address. 

ADDRESS  . 

CHARLES  R.  BRADLEY,  Manager, 

The  "South  Shore,"  17-21  Quincy  Street,  Chicago,  111. 


THE  GRAND  CANON  OF  THE  COLORADO  RIVER  IN  ARIZONA 

Nature's  Sublimest  Panorama.—  Reached  from  Flagstaff,  Arizona,  by  stage,  in 
12  hours. — Flagstaff  is  on  the  main  California  line  of  the  Santa  F^  Route,  and  is 
reached  from  Chicago  in  Pullman  Palace  Sleeping-cars  without  change.  For  de- 
scriptive pamphlet,  excursion  rate,  etc.,  write  to 

JNO.  J.  BYRNE,  723  MONADNOCK  BUILDING,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


"MURRAY. 

This  name  on  a  Buggy  or  set  of  Harness  is  a  guarantee  of  its 
superiority  over  all  other  makes.  It  is  a  name  that  is  better  known 
throughout  the  United  States  than  any  other  in  its  line. 

You,  of  course,  know  our  prices. 

You  also  know  we  save  you  fully  50^. 

And  you  are  aware  we  give  a  longer  guarantee  on  our  "Murray" 
goods  than  any  Factory  in  the  World. 


$5*95  "Murray"  Harness, 


and 


$55*95  "Murray"  Buggies, 

Sounds,  and  is,  awfully  cheap  for  high-class  goods.  You  should  read  our 
handsome  1 5O-page  catalogue  of  every  style  of  Vehicles  and  Harness. 
We  sell  them  direct  to  you  without  you  having  to  pay  the  exorbitant 
profits  added  to  such  goods  by  the  Dealers  and  Agents.  We'll  mail 
you  this  catalogue  free.  Send  us  your  name  and  address. 


TheWlLBERH.nURRAYMFG.Co.,Cincinnati,Ohio. 


ILLUSTRATED 
WEEKLY 


1ARPERS  W[  iKLY 


COLUMBIAN  EXPOSITION 

AND    ALL    IMPORTANT 
CURRENT   NEWS    SUBJECTS. 

EDITORIALS 

SHORT   STORIES 

DESCRIPTIVE 
ARTICLES 

AMATEUR 

SPORT 

ETC 


BY  THE  BEST  WRITERS. 

"ABOUND  VOLUME  OF  HARPER'S  WEEKLY  IS  THE  BEST 
EXISTING  ILLUSTRATED  HISTORY  OF  THE  YEAR-N.Y,HER*u. 


SUBSCRIPTION  PRICE,  $4  co  A  YEAR 


1 


Liebig;  COMPANY'S 


Extract  of  Beef 


Is  made  from  the  flesh  of  the  best  Cattle  reared  expressly  for  this  pur= 

pose  by  the  Liebig  Company  on  their  extensive,  fertile  grazing  fields  in 
Uruguay. 

The  greatest  care  and  strictest  cleanliness  prevail  in  every  department 
of  the  Company's  works,  which  are  under  the  constant  supervision  of  their 
own  chemists.  This  vigilance  in  looking  after  every  detail,  beginning  with 
the  cattle  on  the  hoof  and  extending  to  the  finished  product  in  the  jars,  is  one 

secret  of  the  reputation  and  success  of  the  world-known 

i 

Liebig  COflPANY'S  Extract  of  Beef. 

i 

Unapproachable  in  odor,  fine  flavor,  and  wholesomeness.  Keeps 
perfectly  anywhere. 


FOR    DELICIOUS,  REFRESHING    BEEF   TEA. 
FOR  IMPROVED  AND  ECONOMIC   COOKERY. 

8181818181 


SUBSCRIBE   FOR 


s 


CHICAGO,  U.  S.  A. 
JEWELL  N.  HALLIGAN, 

General  Manager. 


JOHN  McGOVERN, 

Editor. 


The  finest  and  most  profusely  illustrated  journal  in  the  world. 

The  only  publication  illustrating  the  progress  and  every  phase  and 
feature  of  the  Great  Exposition  from  start  to  finish. 

All  exhibits,  machinery,  and  mechanical  appliances  will  be  faith- 
fully illustrated  as  they  appear. 

It  will  be  a  complete  and  profusely  illustrated  encyclopaedia  and  history 
(by  word  and  picture)  of  the  men  and  women,  machinery,  mechanical  appli- 
ances, and  exhibits  connected  with  the  Greatest  Exposition  ever  known  to  the 
world. 

Illustrated  departments  of  interest  to  scientists,  scholars,  artists,  men  of  the 
world,  housewives,  and  general  readers  will  be  established  and  maintained  on 
a  high  plane. 

The  bound  volumes  form  books  of  intensely  interesting  reading,  besides 
being  a  handsome  art  gallery,  and  should  have  a  place  in  every  library.  All 
back  numbers  can  be  supplied  at  25  cents  a  copy. 

Get  all  numbers.  Have  your  library  complete.  Subscription  price  in 
United  States  and  Canada,  $2.50  a  year.  Foreign  subscription  in  Postal  Union, 
$3.50  a  year.  Single  copies,  25  cents.  Bound  volumes  in  beautiful  paper  cov- 
ers, $2.00 ;  in  cloth,  $3.00.  Lady  agents  wanted  in  every  city,  town,  and  village. 
Address  JEWELL  N.  HALLIGAN,  General  Manager, 

McVICKER'S    THEATRE    BUILDING,  CHICAGO. 


Is  deemed  superior  to  all  others : 

ist.    It  is  a  pure  water  and,  unlike  most  of  the  table  waters,  is  unadulterated 
or  any  other  ingredient. 

ad.   It  is  a  fresh  water  from  a  mountain-spring,  and  has  the  pleasant  taste  and 
ing  quality  which  can  only  he  found  in  mountain  spring  water. 

3d.   It  is  the  most  sparkling  and  effervescent  of  all  waters,  being  charged  with 
gas  taken  out  of  the  same  spring. 

4th.  Recommended  by  all  physicians  who  have  tried  it  as  the  best  rem- 
edy known  for  indigestion  and  stomach  troubles. 

5th.  A  chemical  analysis  shows  it  contains  the  best  properties  to  act  on 
stomach,  liver,  and  kidneys.  Prepared  in  nature's  laboratory,  it  produces 
an  effect  on  the  system  that  cannot  be  duplicated  by  any  combination  man 


by  salt 
refresh- 
its  own 


can  create. 


'  The  analysis  of 


Iflamtw 


By  Prof.  ELWYN  WALLER,  Ph.D.,  Analytical  Chemist,  New  York  City, 
found  it  to  contain 


Sodium  Chloride, 
Potassium  Sulphate, 
Sodium  Sulphate, 
Sodium  Carbonate, 
Lithium  Carbonate, 
Calcium  Caibonate, 
Magnesium  Carbonate, 
Iron  Oxide, 
Alumina, 
Silica, 

It  contains  free  carbonic  acid  gas. 


2-993 

1.336 

1.268 

5.083 

.089 

8.635 

2.085 

.003 

.009 

-3'2 

21.813 


1  'our  druggist  or  grocer  has  it  or  will  procure  it  for  you.    Circulars  sent  on  application  to 

MANITOU  MINERAL  WATER  CO.,  MANITOU,  COLO. 

MANITOU  GINGER  CHAMPAGNE  is  made  from  the  Manitou  Mineral  Spring  Water 
combined  with  Jamaica  ginger  and  fruit  syrups.  Absolutely  non-alcoholic  and  specially 
recommended  for  ladies  and  children. 


"THE  HEALTH  AND  GROWTH  of  our  Piano  business  depend  in 
1  some  degree  upon  our  interesting  and  making  friends  of  the  people 
who  do  not  know  our  goods.  We  want  you,  before  the  Exposition,  to 
know  what  pur  leading  piano  is.  It  is-  not  only  our  leader,  but  one 
of  the  few  pianos  which  everywhere  is  recognized  as  a  leader.  It  is 


Bear  this  in  mind,  and  when  at  the  Exposition  seek  us  out.  We 
say  no  more  here  of  its  merits,  but  during  your  visit  will  gladly  make 
them  known. 

THE  JOHN  CHURCH  COMPANY,  CINCINNATI,  OHIO. 

Do  you  want  a  new  piano?  Do  you  want  to  exchange  an  old  square  piano  or  an  organ  on  a  new 
upright?  If  you  do,  we  want  your  name  and  address.  To  get  them  we  will  send  you  free  the  "College 
Album  of  Vocal  and  Instrumental  Music  by  Standard  Composers,"  if  you  will  mention  where  this  adver- 
tisement was  seen  and  enclose  a  two-cent  stamp  for  postage. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

1C43PRAL 


HARPER'S  CHICAGO  AND  THE  WORLD'S  FAIR  NY 


